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STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW 

EDITED BY THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE 
OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 

Volume XXXV] [Number 2 

Whole Number 93 



A STUDY OF THE POPULATION 
OF MANHATTANVILLE 



HOWARD BROWN WOOLSTON, Ph.D. 

Formerly Lecturer in Sociology •, Western Reserve University 




3Nto jJork 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., AGENTS 
London : P. S. King & Son 

1909 



M*K>grAf>t 



FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE 



Nicholas Murray Butler, LL.D., President. J. W. Burgess, LL.D., Professor 
of Political Science and Constitutional Law. Munroe Smith, LL.D., Professor of 
Roman Law and Comparative Jurisprudence. F. J. Goodnow, LL.D., Professor 
of Administrative Law and Municipal Science. E. R. A. Seligman, LL.D., Profes- 
sor of Political Economy and Finance. H. L. Osgood, Ph.D., Professor of History. 
Wm.A. Dunning, LL.D., Professor of History and Political Philosophy. J. B. Moore, 
LL.D., Professor of International Law. F. H. Giddings, LL.D., Professor 
of Sociology. J. B. Clark, LL.D., Professor of Political Economy. J. H. 
Robinson,Ph.D., Professor of History. W. M. Sloane,L.H.D., Professor of History. 
H. R. Seager, Ph.D., Professor of Political Economy. H. L. Moore, Ph.D., 
Professor of Political Economy. W. R. Shepherd, Ph.D., Professor of History. 
J. T. Shotwell, Ph.D., Professor of History. G. W. Botsford, Ph.D., Adjunct 
Professor of History. V. G. Simkhovitch, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Economic 
History. E. T. Devine, LL.D., Professor of Social Economy. Henry Johnson, 
Ph.D., Professor of History. S- McC. Lindsay, Ph.D., Professor of Social Legis- 
lation. C. A. Beard, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Politics. G. J. Bayles, Ph.D., 
Associate in Ecclesiology. E. E. Agger, Ph.D., Lecturer in Economics. R. E. 
Chaddock, Ph.D., Lecturer in Economics. C. H. Hayes, A.M., Lecturer in History 



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Courses in Economics and Social Economy given in the School of Philanthropy are 
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The library contains over 420,000 volumes and students have access to other 
great collections in the city. 



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STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW 

EDITED BY THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE 
OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 

Volume XXXV] [Number 2 

Whole Number 93 



A STUDY OF THE POPULATION 
OF MANHATTANVILLE 



BY 

HOWARD BROWN WOOLSTON, Ph.D. 

Formerly Lecturer in Sociology, Western Reserve University 




COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., AGENTS 
London : P. S. King & Son 

1909 



«%^ 



<s* 



Copyright, 1909 

BY 

HOWARD BROWN WOOLSTON 



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PREFACE 



The purpose of this investigation is threefold. In the 
first place, it is hoped that the study may further illus- 
trate an inductive method for the analysis of social 
groups. Such a method has been splendidly applied in 
the works of Charles Booth J and of Rowntree, 2 as well 
as in the more descriptive studies of regions of Boston 
and Chicago by the residents of South End House 3 and 
of Hull House. 4 Other examples of such treatment 
might be mentioned. 5 

In the second place, as originally planned, this study 
was to form part of a proposed report upon social con- 
ditions in Manhattanville, by the residents of Speyer 
School, a neighborhood center in the section. The 
practical purpose was to present a clear account of the 
needs and resources of the school " parish," as a basis 
for effective philanthropic and educational effort. A 
definite understanding of the facts in the situation was 
thought essential to any comprehensive scheme of bet- 
terment. In the investigation as thus planned, an analy- 
sis of the population formed but one section. Other 
chapters were to deal with the topography and history 

1 Life and Labor in London. 

2 Poverty. 

3 The City Wilderness ; Americans in Process. 

4 Hull House Maps and Papers. 

5 Notably, T. J. Jones, The Sociology of a New York City Block. 

. 185] 5 



PREFACE 



[186 



of the region, with housing conditions and home life y . 
with business interests, social activities, political organi- 
zation and general ethical tendencies. It is obvious,, 
therefore, that the present study is but a fragment of a 
complete investigation of neighorhood life. Its subject 
is a matter of sufficient interest and importance in itself,, 
however, to merit presentation without the background 
of the various social institutions, which would undoubt- 
edly make the sketch more vital and convincing. We 
have ventured, accordingly, to present a study of our 
neighbors, as illustrating the forces that are moulding 
the city. 

Finally, it was believed that such an analysis of the 
conditions of neighborhood life might furnish material 
for a scientific program of social education in the school.. 
A general outline of such a system was published by the 
writer in Charities and The Commons for September^ 
1906. The plan in brief is, to train the coming genera- 
tion for effective citizenship by consistently developing 
their ability to observe and analyze the facts of the social; 
life about them. Beginning with the institution closest 
to the child, namely, the Home, the instruction would 
proceed to consider local industries, civic control, and,, 
finally, agencies for general culture. In this way the 
child at each stage in his educational career would be 
put in touch with those social organizations that most 
immediately affect his welfare. Thus the citizen and 
worker might become intelligent as to those local con- 
ditions that largely control his choice of occupation and 
political allegiance. 

In such reading of the social book it is obvious that 
the neighborhood offers the pages most intelligible to 
one who would decipher the significance of a volume 
so vast as that presented by our great metropolitan 



jgy-j PREFACE j 

centers. The neighborhood displays cosmopolitan ten- 
dencies modified by local traditions. It shows urban 
conditions in scope as large as the mental vision, natur- 
ally provincial, can focus in one glance. The neighbor- 
hood thus forms the natural medium in passing from the 
limited circle of the home and school into the larger life 
of the local community and the national society of which 
it forms a part. 

We have chosen for analysis a group of people who, 
because of a certain seclusion and historical continuity 
in the development of their neighborhood, may be said 
to be as homogeneous as any typical aggregation in a 
large city. At the same time the various influences to 
which the section has been subjected, and the different 
elements of which its population is composed, make it 
representative of the forces by which our cosmopolitan 
centers are evolved. Moreover, the fact that this is an 
old community, which is gradually being absorbed in the 
larger metropolis, lends an added interest to the descrip- 
tion of its social economy. A few more years and the 
distinctive marks and neighborhood associations of Man- 
hattanville will have been obliterated and replaced by the 
more commonplace economy of a section of New York. 
It is therefore worth while to attempt to define the 
characteristics of its inhabitants before they are swal- 
lowed up in the masses that are swarming over the 
island. 

It is obvious that such a local group is not self- 
contained. It has manifold and intricate relations with 
the urban community about it. But this is true to a 
greater or less degree of every social group. It is 
equally true that every well-defined center of population 
is composed of individuals who, because of certain char- 
acteristics, react upon their social environment in a defi- 



8 PREFACE [188 

nite way. Types are thus evolved in response to the 
peculiar stimuli of the social situation — types that can be 
distinguished by traits or mannerisms often peculiar to 
the group. Local expressions, traditions, fashions, 
standards of life thus differ almost from street to street 
in certain quarters of our cities. Upper Fifth Avenue 
and lower Third are socially distinct regions. So is 
Hell's Kitchen different from Cherry Hill; and even 
Morningside has not the same mien as Washington 
Heights. It is to be regretted that these finer variations 
have not been more systematically observed, analyzed 
and classified by our sociologists. A body of informa- 
tion upon important aspects of the psychology of social 
groups might thus be organized which would be invalu- 
able for the development of a valid theory of social 
motives. 

All neighborhoods are not to be dealt with in the 
same manner, as every successful politician and canvasser 
knows. The springs of conduct have their sources deep 
in the underlying strata of racial, economic, religious 
and cultural formation of which our social world is built 
up. And yet too many legislators, reformers and edu- 
cators attempt to control, to incite and to elevate por- 
tions of our commonwealths and classes of the people as 
though they were all of one constitution and tempera- 
ment. This seems to be an error in tactics that involves 
a waste of energy. There appears to be room, there- 
fore, for more careful study of the habits and mind of 
the people in any obvious social group. We are coming 
to see that only by understanding collective human mo- 
tives can we wisely attempt to satisfy and direct them. 

This study was begun in the autumn of 1904, and was 
continued for two years, while the writer was a resident 
in the neighborhood. It was resumed after two years' 



189] PREFACE g 

absence, when the shifting of population had made ob- 
vious changes in the social situation. It is clear, there- 
fore, that the section could not be described both as it 
was, say in 1905, and as it is to-day. Much of the sta- 
tistical data could not be obtained for the present time, 
because no comprehensive census more recent than that 
of June, 1905, has been made. It seemed wisest, accord- 
ingly, to give a picture of the region as it was at the 
former date, illustrating the social tendencies by changes 
that have since occurred. The main purpose after all is 
to define, if possible, the characteristic "flavor" of the 
little community that is so rapidly being absorbed by the 
advancing tides of urban life. This is perhaps more 
essential than locating the total number of foreign house- 
holds at the date of publication; and does not greatly 
differ from the retrospective procedure in any investiga- 
tion based upon government statistics. Moreover, we 
are convinced that some such interpretation of official 
returns for considerable numbers is more satisfactory 
than an attempt at instant accuracy by means of per- 
sonal canvass. 

Even in such a limited presentation of facts, contribu- 
tions from many sources have been used. The study in 
the main is based upon a transcript of the returns of the 
Federal Census of 1900, obtained through the courtesy 
of the Tenement House Department; and upon the 
Board of Health enumeration of 1905, secured through 
the kindly offices of the Registrar. Lesser sources are 
noted in the text, as are also works of reference from 
which suggestions have been obtained. 

The writer wishes to express his indebtedness espe- 
cially to Professor Giddings, with whose help and direc- 
tion this much-interrupted study was pursued. To Dr. 
K. H. Claghorn, of the Tenement House Department, 



IO PREFACE [l 9 

thanks are due for access to much data from official 
records under her supervision; and also to Dr. Guilfoy, 
of the Department of Health. The recent files of Speyer 
School were made available through the kindness of the 
Principal, Miss Amy Schiissler. The writer also wishes 
to acknowledge his gratitude to Rev. H. R. Hulse^ 
Rector of St. Mary's, for valuable notes on the early 
history of the parish. To Fr. John McCahill also for 
records of his congregation, and to Mr. Wm. B. Hogan 
for data on realty values special thanks are due. 

The use made of such material is entirely the respon- 
sibility of the writer. It is hoped that the correctness 
of the facts upon which the study is made may atone for 
infelicities of method in presenting them. 

H. B. W. 

April, 1909. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction 13 

CHAPTER I 
Historical Development 16 

CHAPTER II 
Analysis of Population 32 

CHAPTER III 

The Social Temper 

1 . The Naturalized Sub-races 53 

(a) Irish 54 

(b) Germans . 62 

(c) English 67 

(d) Scotch and Scandinavians 71 

(e) French and Swiss 74 

2. ' ' Americans in Process " 76 

(a) Native White Americans jy 

(b) Negroes 89 

(c) Italians 92 

(d) Hebrews 95 

(e) Austro-Hungarians and Others 97 

3. Estimates 99 

CHAPTER IV 
Economic Conditions 

1 . Occupations 102 

2. Wages 1 19 

3. Rents 122 

4. Food 123 

5. Charitable Aid 124 

6. Ownership of Homes '. 128 

191] 11 



12 CONTENTS [ ig2 

PAGE 

CHAPTER V 
Vital Tendencies 130 

CHAPTER VI 
Movements of Population I4g 



INTRODUCTION 



Tourists who come down the Hudson by boat to 
New York seldom fail to notice Grant's Tomb. To the 
north of it the black arches of the Viaduct carry River- 
side Drive above a fringe of wharves, and frame glimpses 
of storehouses, chimneys and tenements beyond. The 
waterfront is dominated by a towering gas tank that 
asserts the divine right of business. Such is the western 
aspect of Manhattanville. 

Viewed from Morningside Heights this section has 
the appearance of an irregular oval, with its sides bent 
up against the surrounding hills. It is almost a mile 
from the Columbia Library north to City College. Be- 
tween these peaks of learning the ground descends with 
equal slope more than one hundred feet within ten city 
blocks. This conformation early gave to the passage 
between the hills the name of the Hollow Way. On the 
east the converging spurs of Morningside Park and of 
Convent Hill partly enclose a natural amphitheater; 
while on the west the jutting banks of Riverside admit 
but a restricted waterfront. This almost secluded situ- 
ation of Manhattanville protected it from too rapid 
incursion by the growing population to the south and 
east. The main lines of transportation passed beyond 
the hills. Only since the subway tapped this pocket has 
the old village begun to disappear before the advancing 
metropolis. 

193] 13 



1 4 INTRODUCTION [ I94 

If one would really enter the neighborhood he must 
do so from the southeast, following Manhattan Street 
from St. Nicholas Avenue toward the North River. 
This old diagonal road is the thoroughfare between the 
industrial plants and receiving stations near the water- 
front and the business section of Harlem to the east. It 
is almost exactly three-quarters of a mile from Hancock 
Place to the Fort Lee Ferry; and this gives the prin- 
cipal dimension of the neighborhood. The main streets 
north and south are Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway. 
The former is the chief business thoroughfare of this 
section, and has two lines of electric cars running down- 
town. Besides the surface line to the Ferry, Broadway 
boasts an " elevated subway," with a station at Man- 
hattan Street. The numbered streets above 127th are 
interrupted by Convent Hill. There is only one cross- 
town route, via 125th and Manhattan Streets. From 
here to 134th Street (where there were only open lots 
four years ago) 1 is just about half a mile; and from the 
foot of Convent Avenue to the River it is approximately 
the same distance. This area, consisting of forty-two 
city blocks and segments, covers the site of old Man- 
hattanville. 2 

As one comes into the neighborhood he notices that 
the tenements are smaller than the apartments he has 
left behind. Indeed, from the Viaduct one can distin- 
guish the confines of the old village by the fresher walls 
of new buildings that rise above darker structures below 
them. Some of the brick houses are only two stories 
high; and an occasional single frame dwelling standing 
back from the street shows traces of a community older 

1 Bromley Plates of Manhattan for 1905, plate 39. 

2 See accompanying map. 



I95 ] INTRODUCTION I5 

than the flats about it. Open spaces where the rock 
crops out, and an odd plot or two still occupied by 
cabins of the "squatter" type, bear witness to the days 
when this was "Goatville." The crook in Old Broadway 
and the bias of Lawrence and Manhattan Streets show 
that these were traveled ways before the checkerboard 
of city streets was imposed. So well defined is the sec- 
tion that one can readily see that the north side of 
124th Street does not belong to the neighborhood; 
whereas the south side of 125th does. In like manner 
it is plain that the apartments on St. Nicholas Avenue 
drain into another social region; whereas the tenements 
back of them on upper Morningside Avenue belong to 
the economic watershed of the Village. 



CHAPTER I 
Historical Development 

Manhattanville has a long, though somewhat ob- 
scure history. Its original white settlers came from the 
Dutch village of New Haarlem on the other side of the 
island. Manhattan Street follows the course of the old 
trail that branched off from the road to Spuyten Duyvil 
(St. Nicholas Ave.) and led to the Round Meadow of 
Moetje David's Vly by Harlem Cove (now the Fort Lee 
Ferry). 1 The valley was then soft bottom-land, perhaps 
once the channel of a former mouth of the Hudson. 2 
Three or four little streams flowing down from the hill- 
side, were caught in a string of pools and drained off 
eastward into a creek that still shows traces in the north 
end of Central Park. The meadow in the Hollow Way 
and the land north to the rim of Joachim Pieter's Hills 
(134th St.) became the property of Peter van Oblemus. 3 
Along the more rugged southern hills, in 1712, seven 
plots (known as lots 8 to 14 of the first division of the 

*For details of the early history of Manhattanville, Riker's History 
of Harlem is the principal authority. The Annals of St. Michael's, by 
Dr. J. P. Peters, also contains references to St. Mary's parish. Aside 
from the maps and scattered statements in these works, the traditions 
of the old inhabitants have been used. 

2 Cf. Sanitary Condition of New York (Citizens' Association, 1865), 
P- 335. 

3 This was the ground on which Manhattanville was later built. 
Direct descendants of the original owner still rent tenements in the 
neighborhood. 

16 [ip5 



I97 ] HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT ! 7 

lands of New Haarlem) were laid off. 1 These sloping- 
fields were at first probably pasture lots. Later barns 
and dwellings were built on these little farms ; and so 
the section gained its first settled population. 

Manhattanville thus began its existence as an outlying 
portion of New Haarlem. The latter village was incor- 
porated in 1660, 2 and comprised the territory north of a 
line from 74th Street and East River to 129th Street and 
the North River. In 1661 the town numbered twenty- 
three families. 3 But, lest it be supposed that this original 
population was homogeneous and undifferentiated Dutch, 
we may note that the thirty-two men registered in the 
first enumeration were distributed among six nationali- 
ties as follows : 1 1 French, 7 Hollanders, 4 Wallons, 3 
Germans, 4 Danes and 3 Swedes. 4 The lines of classifi- 
cation were early drawn between the clergy and the land- 
holders on the one hand, and the laborers and traders on 
the other. At least such were the traditional distinc- 
tions the colonists brought with them. Furthermore, in 
the original settlement at the southern end of the island, 
we find a division into Great and Small Burghers estab- 
lished before this time. 5 The right to hold office and to 
engage in trade was thus secured upon the basis of birth, 
profession or property. The exigencies of early colonial 
life doubtless mitigated these distinctions, since all had 
to fight and work. Trapping, farming and trading were 
the natural occupations of the settlers. 

By 1664, Harlem was a stockaded village with a militia 
of twenty-nine men, and boasting a church and com- 

1 Cf. Riker's map, op. cit., p. 832. 

2 O'Callaghan, Register of New Netherlands, p. xix {Annals). 
3 C. H. Pierce, New Harlem, p. 30. K Ibid., p. 25. 
5 O'Callaghan, op. cit., pp. 173-4. 



1 8 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ I9 8 

mon. 1 Within the next ten years the town spread west- 
ward from the East River to Snake Hill (Mt. Morris 
Park), and extended from about 117th Street to 126th. 
It was a thrifty Dutch farming community of some forty 
families in 1695, 2 w ^ tn a stone kirk, whose sexton origi- 
nally received the equivalent of nine dollars and sixty 
cents per annum. 3 The simple tenor of its social life we 
may gather from the pleasant pictures in Riker. The 
characteristics of its inhabitants may be inferred from 
traditional representations of the Dutch — sturdy, indus- 
trious, phlegmatic, conservative, with a love of good 
cheer and devotion to old friends, but at times over- 
cunning and cruel. Such were the men who planted the 
first fields in Manhattanville. But their influence does 
not seem to have been continuous in the western valley. 
So we must leave the story of Harlem to the historian, 
and turn our attention toward another quarter. 

During the latter half of the seventeenth century 
events were occurring on the high seas which were to 
determine the fate of Manhattan. The English were 
fighting the Dutch for the monopoly of western trade, 
and New Netherlands presented a decided obstacle to 
England's mastery of the North Atlantic coast. We are 
all familiar with the facts of the settlement of New 
Amsterdam by the Dutch, and its subsequent capture by 
the English. Washington Irving, in his whimsical way, 
has made us acquainted with the characters in this early 
history. Certain it is, that after the Dutch lost the city 
their influence decreased as that of the English devel- 
oped. Under the Georges, New York began to borrow 

*C. H. Pierce, op. cit., p. 28. 

'Miller, New York (ed. Shea), p. 37 {table). 

8 Pierce, op. cit., p. 33. 



I99 ] HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT IQ . 

her modes of life from the mother country, and the place 
became as much like its illustrious pattern as colonial 
conditions would admit. 1 It is scarcely necessary to 
attempt the analysis of colonial life and character, how- 
ever. It suffices for our purpose to note that after 1664 
the control of the island was in the hands of the English. 

From 1697 on we can trace the growth of New York 
by means of the various colonial, city, state and federal 
enumerations. The following table, copied from the 
valuable work of F. B. Hough, 2 is of interest as showing 
the character and growth of the colonial population. 
It will be seen from this table that negroes formed 
from 14 per cent, to 20 per cent, of the population. 
Practically all of these were slaves. 

At the time of the Revolution, Manhattanville emerges 
into historical prominence. During the campaigns about 
New York, Washington established a line of fortifica- 
tions along the heights from Spuyten Duyvil to the 
Hollow Way. It was in this latter vicinity that the battle 
of Harlem Heights was fought, September 16, 1776. We 
need not here recount the story in detail. 3 The Ameri- 
cans crossed the Hollow Way from the northern hills ; 
climbed the heights of Morningside, and defeated the 
British on the ground west of Columbia University. 
Washington is said to have watched the conflict from a 
rocky spur of Convent Hill at 126th Street. From the 
indications of war maps, one would infer that the section 
at that time was practically unoccupied. 

1 Cf. Singleton, New York Under The Georges. It must be noted, 
however, that Dutch was at first necessary for trade among the mer- 
chantmen along the river. 

2 Statistics of the Population of the City and County of New York, 
pp. 7-12. 

3 An excellent account of this skirmish will be found in the work of 
H. P. Johnston, The Battle of Harlem Heights, Macmillan, 1897. 



20 



A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE 



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20 i] HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 2I 

During the War of 1812 a line of defenses was built 
along Morningside and the heights commanding the 
north, from McGown's Pass (in Central Park) to the 
Barrier Gate on Bloomingdale Road. Two of these out- 
posts lay just beyond the southern limits of our neigh- 
borhood. A part of the rocky base of Fort Laight may 
still be seen at 123rd Street and Broadway. Block House 
No. 3 was at the north end of Morningside Park near 
Amsterdam Avenue. 1 After this stirring era, the section 
again falls into obscurity, and only by stray references 
can its development be traced. 

Old maps show 2 that the original settlement of New 
York centered about Bowling Green, gradually extend- 
ing along the East River to Wall Street, and then spread- 
ing up the Bowery. But when the southern end of the 
island was peopled and the inhabitants began to look 
northward, the eastern side was fairly well occupied by 
those who had followed up the Boston Post Road. 3 The 
flat area of Harlem had already been preempted by the 
Dutch. Consequently there was only one other way for 
the advancing population to move, that was, up the Hud- 
son. Gradually Bloomingdale (the territory lying west 
of Central Park) was opened up and connected with out- 
lying centers to the north. This development was signi- 
ficant for our neighborhood, in that it brought about 
the laying of a road connecting this western valley di- 
rectly with the growing city to the south. After 1800, 
Bloomingdale Road was continued from 114th Street, 

1 See Hall's map in City Club Excursion Leaflet, no. 4, p. 4. 

2 See the excellent series in Janvier's Old New York. 

3 This road, connecting Harlem with the lower city, was put through 
in 1672, and mails were dispatched to Boston the next year. Cf. Wil- 
son, Memorial History of New York, vol. i, p. 355. 



22 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ 20 2 

joining Kingsbridge Road about a mile farther north. 1 
The steepness of the cliffs to the east determined the 
course of this road through the Hollow Way. It was a 
continuation of Broadway, branching into Riverside 
Drive at noth Street, and then slanting eastward to de- 
scend from Morningside Heights. This bend and the 
reverse turn up hill have been perpetuated in Old Broad- 
way. At 136th Street the road again swung east through 
Hamilton Place into Carmensville. In 1819 a stage line 
was established from Chambers Street to what was then 
a small hamlet in the Hollow. 2 At 129th Street a 
natural halting place was found. This became a station 
on the stage route, where passengers changed for High 
Bridge, 3 and a post-office was later located across the 
street. Along this River Road the gentry of New York 
began to plant their houses. Claremont — now the re- 
fectory near Grant's Tomb — was the property of a Mr. 
Hogan, and later became for a time the residence of 
Joseph Bonaparte. 4 The country house of Jacob Schief- 
felin was at 144th Strest. 5 Hamilton's residence is still 
preserved at 141st Street and Convent Avenue. The 
Lawrence mansion overlooked the valley from the bluff 
to the northwest. In 1807, Gouverneur Morris and 
Simon DeWitt laid out a system of streets as far as 
155th. 6 The names of the region to the north— Hamil- 
ton Place, Lafayette Boulevard, Washington Heights— 

1 Cf. Historical Address on the Semi- Centennial of St. Mary's, by 
Rev. T. M. Peters. The writer is indebted to the Rev. Mr. Hulse, 
Rector of the parish, for citations from this rare document. 

2 Cf. Peters, Annals of St. Michael's, p. 46. 
3 Ibid., p. 125. 

4 Cf. Old Buildings of New York City, Brentano, 1907, p. 129 et seq. 

5 Peters, op. cit., p. 377. 

* Cf. Leslie's History of Greater New York, vol. i, p. 456. 



203] HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 23 

show the influences active when that section was opened 
up. Hamilton's personality especially seems to have 
been felt in the community. He is said to have been a 
member of the congregation that later built St. Mary's 
Episcopal Church on Lawrence Street. Certainly mem- 
bers of his family were identified with the work of this 
parish. 

Before 1812 there was no Manhattanville ; ■ but a map of 
Harlem Heights dated two years later, gives the section 
its name, and shows its streets sparsely bordered with 
houses. 2 In 1823 there were perhaps fifteen dwellings 
in the valley, and two private schools. 3 There were 
more people scattering to the east along Harlem Plain. 
The population seems to have been composed mostly of 
poor British and Dutch-Americans. We know there 
were also a few negroes. 4 There was no place of public 
worship in the neighborhood until St. Mary's was built 
in 1826, as a mission church with a school, sustained 
largely by St. Michael's parish and the gifts of a few 
wealthy members of the congregation. 

The Blue Book of 181 5 shows the fields of Thomas 
Buckley, John Lawrence, Jacob Schieffelin, Jacob Loril- 
lard, Barrow, Byrd, Hamersly, Hogan and Moleneor, as 
occupying the territory covered by our section. Most 
of the land in the valley bottom belonged to the first 
three gentlemen. In 1823 Mr. Schieffelin laid out the 
village in plots along six streets. Two of these trans- 
verse lanes remain as Manhattan and Lawrence streets ; 

Meters, loc. cit. 

2 Cf. Wilson, Memorial History of New York, vol. iii, p. 281. 

3 Most of the information on the early history of Manhattanville is 
gleaned from the address of Rev. T. M. Peters referred to supra. 

* Ibid., p. 25. 



24 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [204 

and the northernmost still shows its center line by the 
irregular arrangement of lots between 130th and 131st 
Streets, east of Old Broadway. A Quaker meeting house 
once stood on old Phineas Street (which ran at right 
angles to Lawrence) just east of St. Mary's church. 

The cholera visitation of 1832 brought great distress 
to this section, as yet without the organization of city 
life. But the energy of the parish visitors brought aid 
and comfort to those in distress. 1 The village continued 
to grow ; and in 1846, a guide-book of the city men- 
tions Manhattanville as a suburb of 500 inhabitants. 2 
By 1850, the population had increased, but had greatly 
changed in character. 3 Several industries had moved in, 
and foreign workmen began to appear in numbers. At 
this time services were conducted in German by an assis- 
tant of St. Mary's. 4 In 185 1 the Hudson River Railroad 
was completed, connecting Manhattanville with the lower 
city. Previous to this time the main line of transporta- 
tion had been by stage to 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue. 
The coming of rapid transit changed Bloomingdale from 
a fashionable suburb into a line of settlements, and Man- 
hattanville also developed. 5 The streets were partly 
paved to give work to the laborers thrown out of em- 
ployment by the panic of 1857. 6 A dispensary and a 
library were established. The village began to assume 
some importance. Let us see how the development 
came about. 

The population of New York grew rapidly in the per- 

1 Cf. T. M. Peters, Address. 2 Peters, Annals, p. 83. 

3 Sermon of J. P. Peters at St. Mary's, Mar. 8, 1908. 

4 Peters, Annals, p. 293. 
5 Ibid., pp. 84, 125. 

6 T. M. Peters, address cited. 



205] 



HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 



25 



iod following the Revolution. In 1786 it was 23,614;' 
in 1807 it was 83,530. The increase from 1805 to 1845 
according to the report of the City Inspector (1852), 
amounted to 296,453. The civic and economic character 
of the people may be indicated by the following table : 2 

Table II 

STATE CENSUS OF ELECTORS AND FREEMEN OF NEW YORK CITY 



Date 


Total 
Electors 


Income £100 
and over 


Income £20 
and over 


Renters 40s. 
and over 


Freemen 


179c 


5,184 


1,209 


1,221 


2,661 


93 


I795-- 


7,272 


2,144 


10 


4,948 


170 


1801 • • 


8,088 


2,332 


19 


5,693 


44 


1807.. 


12,416 


3,000 


20 


9,334 


62 


1814-- 


i3,94i 


3,i4i 


17 


10,763 


20 


1821 • . 


16,659 


3,88i 


17 


12,761 


(3,266) » 



It is evident from this registration that the old lines of 
property and birth were still drawn. It is interesting 
also to note, that the class of those who owned property 
valued at £100 or over, and also the petty renters, in- 
creased most rapidly, though not with equal rapidity. 
Thus it appears that the city economy early established 
a division between those who had amassed wealth and 
the wage-earning tenants. On the other hand, the 
number of slaves was diminishing. In 1800 there were 
2868 as against 518 in 1820. 4 In view of the law that 
declared the children of slaves born after 1799 free upon 



^ee Hough, op. cit., p. 15. 

3 Free males taxed but not electors. 



2 Ibid., pp. 18, 19. 

4 Hough, op. cit., p. 57. 



2 6 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ 2 o6 

majority, it soon became more profitable to hire the in- 
creasing number of laborers than to own negroes. 

In the late forties the immigrants began to arrive in 
large numbers. The troublous times in Germany, and 
the famine in Ireland sent most of them. It was from 
these elements that the underlying strata of the present 
population of Manhattanville were composed. In 1820 
there were 5390 aliens in the city; in 1855 there were 
232,678/ At the latter date, out of a population of 17,- 
562, the northern ward of the city had 957 native voters, 
as against 787 naturalized, and numbered 7864 alien in- 
habitants. 2 In 1865 the figures for approximately the 
same section, were : white population, 27,823 ; colored, 
436; aliens, 4361 ; 3 native voters 2379; naturalized voters, 
2341. From these figures it is obvious that many for- 
eigners were seeking homes in Harlem. The nature of 
the place attracted them. Rents were cheap, and land 
was to be had for cultivating. According to the State 
Census of 1865, almost half the gardeners of the city 
lived in the 12th Ward. 4 The people were mostly en- 
gaged in rough labor, with a goodly proportion in teach- 
ing, in small public offices and employees of institutions. 
The numbers in mechanical and mercantile pursuits were 
comparatively small. There were 3262 inhabited dwell- 
ings valued at nearly $14,000,000, about double the fig- 
ures for ten years earlier. 5 

In the sixties we are able again to find specific infor- 
mation on Manhattanville. A picture in the possession 
of Teachers College shows the neighborhood as it ap- 

^ough, op. cit., pp. 30-241. 2 Ibid., pp. 229, 239, 241. 

3 This number is reduced by reason of subtracting the foreign element 
in the 19th Ward, which was divided off shortly before. 
4 Hough, op. cit., pp. 242-280. 5 Ibid., p. 285. 



207] HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 2 J 

peared in 186 1 from Fort Laight. This cut shows a 
group of frame dwellings centering about Lawrence 
Street and Old Broadway. Near the river is Tieman's 
color works ; x in the center are the Church of the An- 
nunciation (Roman Catholic) and Saint Mary's; and on 
the eastern background is the Convent of the Sacred 
Heart. By this time, then, we are assured that there 
was a population of industrious small property holders, 
many of whom were Catholics. In 1865 the inhabitants 
of the section known as Manhattanville numbered 2,i8g. 2 
The area comprised in this census is larger than that 
with which we are concerned, extending from 110th 
Street to 135th Street, and from Sixth or Seventh 
Avenue to the river. The number given is somewhat 
too large therefore, although the population in the sur- 
rounding section was more scattered than in the Hol- 
low. 3 These people were mostly Irish and Germans, 
with a sprinkling of Americans. 

The Irish began to move in during the forties. At 
least their good works appear in a way to indicate num- 
bers about that time. The Academy and Convent of the 
Sacred Heart were established in 1846. 4 Manhattan Col- 
lege was founded (as the Academy of the Holy Infancy) 
in 1853. 5 The next year the Church of the Annunciation 
(at 131st Street and Old Broadway) was dedicated. 6 The 

Recently dismantled. 2 Hough's map accompanying work cited. 

3 For most of the information concerning conditions in Manhattan- 
ville at this date, the writer is indebted to the report of Dr. L. A. 
Rodenstein, Sanitary Inspector for the 28th Dist., contained in the Re- 
port of the Council of Hygiene of the Citizens' Assn., for 1865 (already 
referred to), especially pp. 335-342. 

* Cf. Goulding's Catholic Churches of New York City, p. 739. The 
original buildings were wrecked by fire. Only the shrine of St. Ann 
was preserved, it is said, by a miracle. 

h Ibid., p. 730. 6 Ibid., p. 171. 



28 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [208 

people settled on the old diagonal streets between 129th 
and 132nd, east of the church. The Report of the Citi- 
zens Association for 1865 mentions the carelessness of 
the Irish laborers in this section as to matters of sanita- 
tion. 1 Certain it is that some of the most primitive 
houses in our neighborhood are in the vicinity of Old 
Broadway. Although there were well-to-do members in 
the parish, the greater number seemed to have been rather 
poor folk who left the old country because of the diffi- 
culties of gaining a livelihood there. They were mostly 
engaged in the rough work of transportation and con- 
struction. 2 Their income was not infrequently supple- 
mented by the proceeds of a truck patch and the rumi- 
nations of a. goat. 

The German colony centered on Lawrence Street, 
which rapidly became a populous thoroughfare. The 
people were mostly South Germans and Catholics. In 
i860 St. Joseph's (R. C.) Church was built for the edifi- 
cation of this group. 3 The establishment of Youngling's 
brewery afforded occupation and consolation for the 
colony. The Germans were mostly laborers, artisans, 
and small trades-people. Being naturally thrifty, they 
soon acquired little shops, houses and gardens. Some of 
these quaint frame dwellings, set back in a little plot of 
green, can still be seen along Lawrence Street. If the 
Irish were reckless, the Germans were stolid. The 
Sanitary Inspector for this district in 1865 complains 
that the former were likely to neglect an invalid, and the 
latter might overwhelm him in the embraces of a feather 
bed. 4 

From this time on, by the aid of maps and the recol- 

1 Op. cit., p. 342. 2 Ibid., p. 340. 

3 Cf. Goulding, op. cit., p. 462. 4 Report cited, p. 342. 



20 g] HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 2 g 

lections of the older inhabitants, we can follow the 
growth of the section more closely. In 1865 Bloom- 
ingdale Road was the main highway of Manhattanville. 
Manhattan Street connected the ferry and railroad sta- 
tion on the North River with 125th Street at Ninth 
Avenue ; Amsterdam Avenue was merely the route of 
water mains; 129th and 130th Streets were laid out; 
Eighth Avenue was a good driving road. From 125th 
Street and Tenth (Amsterdam) Avenue an abandoned 
canal following the old water-course stretched southeast 
to 117th Street and Sixth Avenue. 1 Such were the main 
lines of travel. 

Before 1865 the principal method of communication 
between Harlem and the city had been by stage-coach 
and steamboat. At this date a line of cars was estab- 
lished that carried passengers from 125th Street to City 
Hall in an hour and a half. 2 This increased communica- 
tion led to a rapid northern movement of the population. 
In 1867 another street-car line was laid out Eighth Avenue 
to Harlem, and houses began to cluster at points north 
of 100th Street along the Park. 3 In 1875 the 19th Ward 
numbered 42,501/ This wave did not at first invade the 
Hollow however. The plates in the early and middle 
seventies show a scattering group of houses along Man- 
hattan and Lawrence Streets, but practically no building 
north of 130th. The woolen mill and the Sheltering 
Arms Orphan Asylum also appear. The regular city 
blocks had already been laid out between Amsterdam 
Avenue and Broadway, but only 130th and 133rd Streets 
were carried through to the river. 5 

1 Report cited, pp. 337-8. "-Leslie's Hist., vol. i, p. 457. 

3 Peters, Annals, p. 125. 

4 Map, Department of Public Works, 1875. 

5 See Dripps' Map for 1876. 



30 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ 2 io 

In 1880 a great stride was made in the development of 
Harlem. The "elevated" was put through, and city 
flats began to rise rapidly. 1 The realty maps of this time 
show a community of some 200 dwellings and other 
buildings in Manhattanville. The Brothers' parochial 
school had been established on 131st Street, and a police 
court was located at 102 Lawrence Street. 2 Evidently 
the neighborhood was growing in importance. 

During the next decade the growth increased. The 
plates for 1891 show over 600 buildings of all kinds, 
among which are several rows of flats along the southern 
edge of the neighborhood and scattering up Amsterdam 
Avenue and Old Broadway. Two streets (126th and 
127th) had been put through Convent Hill. Evidently 
the city economy had come in ; the cottages and cabins 
began to disappear. 

In 1895 the 1 2th Ward had 364,412 inhabitants, with a 
density of 61.6 to the acre. 3 This was about one-tenth 
the density of the crowded East Side ; but twenty times 
greater than that of the Bronx. The average number of 
people to a house was twenty. Still the crest of the 
advancing wave had not reached this far northwest. The 
Twenty-third Assembly District (including territory to 
the southeast and as far north as Spuyten Duyvil) num- 
bered 54,046. But soon the tenements and stores in 
solid rows crept across 125th Street and up Amsterdam 
Avenue. Flats rose along 132nd and 133rd Streets. In 
1900 the population of Manhattanville was 14,675 . 4 More 
Irish families came up from the lower West Side to take 
advantage of the lower rents. The silk mill attracted 

1 Cf. Leslie's Hist., vol. i, p. 459. z Bromley Plates for 1879. 

3 Police Census of New York. 

4 Tenement House Report, 1902, vol. ii. 



2i i] HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 3 r 

many German and Swiss weavers. A few Italians and 
Jews from the East Side moved in to establish themselves 
in small shops. At this time there were more foreign- 
born than native heads of families. Finally, in September, 
1904, the subway brought direct rapid transit between 
the neighborhood and the business center of the city. 
As a result the section has grown by leaps. Literally 
acres of new apartment houses are being built on the 
spaces south of 127th Street, between Broadway and 
Riverside. Along the northern hill west of Amsterdam 
Avenue, still larger operations have covered the ground. 
Within our neighborhood the old wooden tenements are 
disappearing to make room for modern rows. Rents 
have advanced ; a new class of people is rapidly moving 
in. Let us turn then to an analysis of the population as 
it was between 1900 and 1905, with a view to discovering 
the character of the people who form the basis of the 
citizenship in this locality. 



CHAPTER II 

Analysis of Population 

The most fundamental condition that determines the 
welfare of a social group, is the number and character of 
its members. The mass of the population decides the 
relation of the people to their habitat, as well as the 
extent and complexity of their organized activities. Es- 
pecially in regard to the manner and means of livelihood, 
is the density of the population significant. We have 
seen that when the valley was divided into a few farms, 
the soil was sufficient to sustain perhaps twenty families. 
But when the land was laid out in a number of small 
plots, agriculture could be only a supplementary means 
of support. At first space was available for stables, 
sheds and storage yards. A large number of these 
is still to be seen between Broadway and the River, 
and along the foot of Convent Hill. But they are 
gradually giving way to receiving stations and stores. 
The industrial plants are being pushed over toward the 
River, and some of them are going out. The educational 
and philanthropic institutions still hold on, although it is 
likely that Manhattan College will soon dispose of its 
present site and seek another farther away from the noise 
of the city. The small shops, save those that supply the 
daily needs of flat-dwellers (such as groceries, laundries, 
drug and notion stores), are being hard pressed by the 
larger establishments advancing along 125th Street. The 
32 [212 



2i 3 ] ANALYSIS OF POPULATION 33 

new apartment houses are taller and more expensive 
than the tenements about them. It is interesting to see 
how in these respects, an inductive study of the develop- 
ment of the neighborhood illustrates and confirms the 
economic principle of the rising marginal utility of land 
under pressure of population. The numbers, density and 
distribution of the population by blocks in 1900 and 
1905, are given in the following table. 1 

1 Since the Insurance Plates, the Tenement House Department, the 
State Enumeration and the Department of Health all number blocks 
differently, the writer has designated them by using figures in the 
thousands, indicating the numbered avenues (or streets corresponding 
to them) west of which the tier is located. The first three digits desig- 
nate the numbered streets north of which the blocks are situated. 
"East" ("e") and "West" ("w") indicate that the block is east or 
west of an avenue intervening between the regular twelve north and 
south thoroughfares of the island. "North" ("n") indicates in the 
case of diagonal blocks, that they are not bounded on the south by a 
numbered street, but begin north of the line of such street. 

Areas are taken from the maps of the First Report of the Tenement 
House Department . When not there given, they were calculated from 
the Bromley Plates for 1905. 

The population for 1900 was also taken from the Tenement House 
Report. For blocks not given therein, it was obtained from the Fed- 
eral returns in the possession of the Tenement House Department. 
The numbers for 1905 were obtained from the New York State Census, 
pp. 238-242, plotted according to the map in possession of the Federa- 
tion of Churches. The other column for the same year is according to 
the returns of the City Department of Health. Some discrepancies 
will be noted between the figures of the latter enumerations. As both 
were taken in the early summer of 1905, only the enumerators can ex- 
plain the variations. It may be remarked in passing however, that the 
earlier was taken by a Democratic city administration, the other by a 
Republican state organization. Redistricting in Manhattanville fol- 
lowed the latter. 

For the density in 1905, the figures of the Health Department were 
used y except for the blocks where it made no returns. 



34 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [214 

Table III 

POPULATION— NUMBERS, DENSITY AND DISTRIBUTION BY BLOCKS 





Area 


Population 


Density 
per acre 


Block 




1 








Number 




Federal 


[ State 


Health 










Returns, 


Census, 


Dept., 


1900 


1905 






1900 


1905 


1905 






8124 w 


2.549 a. 


239 


209 


220 


93 


86 


8125 w 


2.956 


349 


652 


637 


in 


215 


8126 w 


2.894 


1206 


1248 


1 144 


417 


395 


9124 


5.423 


755 


925 


872 


139 


161 


9125 


6-393 


1268 


1297 


1409 


198 


220 


9125 w 


2.513 


435 


5i8 


526 


173 


209 


9126 e 


2.241 


354 


340 


322 


157 


144 


9127 w 


4.563 


178 


116 


155 


39 


34 


9128 w 


4.124 


.... 


.... 


12 




3 


9129 w 


3.235 


100 


288 


300 


3i 


93 


9130 w 


2.614 


729 


874 


804 


278 


307 


9131 w 


3.462 


608 


933 


965 


175 


279 


9133 w 


1.693 


456 


551 


53i 


271 


314 


1 01 24 


5-794 


759 


1706 


2272 


131 


392 


10125 


5.785 


1691 


2012 


1964 


292 


334 


10126 


3.581 


152 


155 


134 


4i 


37 


10127 w 


1.497 


179 


155 


196 


120 


131 


10126 n.e 


4-795 


645 


666 


721 


135 


150 


1012711.W 


1.962 


49 


14 


14 


25 


7 


ioi27n.e 


3.193 


178 


295 


210 


56 


66 


1012811.W 


.380 


25 


17 


24 


66 


63 


10129 e 


3.384 


299 


478 


534 


88 


156 


10129 w 


2.238 


249 


353 


358 


in 


160 


ioi3oe 


3. 181 


344 


364 


325 


108 


102 


10130 w 


2.148 


475 


575 


617 


221 


287 


10131 e 


3.253 


875 


1 176 


1101 


269 


338 


10131 w 


3.684 




46 


95 




26 


10132 c 


3.641 


985 


1157 


1 146 


271 


315 


10133 


5-282 


167 


.... 


160 


3i 


30 


1 1 127 


8.342 


32 


16 


3i 


4 


4 


1 1 128 e 


1.638 


4 


2 


14 


2 


9 


1 1 129 e 


4.350 


64 


79 


81 


15 


19 


1 1 129 w 


.869 


28 


31 


6 


32 


7 


1 1 130 


5.282 


455 


419 


400 


85 


76 


11131 


5.282 


98 


74 


59 


18 


11 


11132 


5.282 


74 


88 


107 


14 


20 


1 1 133 


5.222 


21 


24 


3 


4 


•574 


1 21 29 


1.988 












12130 


2.288 


.... 


11 


7 




3 


12131 


1. 61 1 




3i 


.... 




19 


12132 


1.590 




28 


.... 




18 


1 21 33 


1.623 












43 blocks 


143.825 


14675 


17923 


18476 


102 


128 




acres 








Av. per a. 



215] ANALYSIS OF POPULATION 35 

It will be seen that this section of forty-two blocks 
and portions thereof, comprising an area of about a 
quarter of a square mile, contained in 1900, 14,675 
people. This is a population sufficient for a good-sized 
country town ; but might easily be contained in the five 
blocks north of Houston Street, between Avenues B and 
C. Only three blocks numbered over one thousand per- 
sons; and these are all along the southern edge of the 
neighborhood, where the solid and dumb-bell brick tene- 
ments were first built. In 1905 the population had 
increased to 18,476, a growth of almost 26 per cent. 
Five blocks then had a population of over one thousand, 
and one had over two thousand. Three of these have 
been noted, and a fourth is also along 125th Street. 
The other two are between 131st and i32d Streets, 
bordering on Amsterdam Avenue and Old Broadway. 
Wherever the tall rows go up, there the people crowd 
in. The average density for the neighborhood increased 
from 102 per acre to 128 in five years. The latter figure 
is scarcely representative, however, because the blocks 
vary so widely. Sixteen had less than forty-five people 
per acre, and two had no habitations. Seven had be- 
tween three and four hundred people per acre. This 
juxtaposition of open lots and teeming tenements is 
characteristic of the transitional state of Manhattanville. 
The southern portion is peopled about as thickly as the 
upper East Side along Second Avenue or the lower 
West Side along Seventh Avenue. In contrast, that 
section between Broadway and the River is like a suburb 
in respect to scattered houses. 

In 1900 there were 573 dwellings in the section, ac- 
commodating 3221 households. 



36 



A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE 
Table IV 

NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS TO A DWELLING, igOO 



[2l6 



Households 


No. Houses 


No. Households 


to a Dwelling 


so Occupied 


in such Dwellings 


1 


177 


177 


2 


52 


104 


3 


38 


114 


4 


38 


152 


5 


19 


95 


6 


24 


144 


7 


29 


203 


8 


30 


240 


9 


34 


306 


10 


21 


201 


11 


29 


319 


12 


23 


276 


13 


16 


208 


14 


17 


238 


15 


10 


150 


16 


6 


96 


17 


3 


5i 


18 


1 


18 


19 


4 


76 


20 


1 


20 


24 


1 


24 



The neighborhood thus averaged between five and six 
households to a dwelling. Such a figure is deceptive, 
however, since the single houses outnumbered any other 
type except the larger tenements. By far the greatest 
number of people live in five-story flats with two suites on 
each floor. No less than 2737 families, aggregating 11 73 
persons, were classified as tenement dwellers. 1 That is, 
80 per cent of the population shared their houses with 
other families. By 1905, sixty-four of the old dwellings 
— most of them single frame houses — had disappeared to 

1 Tenement House Report, 1903, vol. ii, pp. 124-125. 

A tenement house is defined as one occupied by three or more fam- 
ilies who do cooking on the premises, or by two (or more) such fam- 
ilies on one floor. 



2 iy] ANALYSIS OF POPULATION 37 

make room for more capacious buildings, and fifty-seven 
new apartment houses had arisen along the southern 
border of the neighborhood and scattering through the 
section. But whereas the old dwellings had sheltered 
from one to four families, the recently built flats accom- 
modate more than twenty households. Several new 
" Raines Law Hotels " and lodging houses had also been 
added, so that the mean number of persons to a house 
has been raised within the last few years. In 1905 there 
were 566 dwellings. This gives an average of over 
thirty-two people to a house. 

In 1900 the Federal returns showed 3221 households 
for this section. On the basis of the population for that 
year, the "families" would average between four and 
five persons. 1 The exact figures for the tenement house 
population are given in the following table : 

Table V 

NUMBER OF PERSONS IN A FAMILY. TENEMENT HOUSE POPULATION, 1900 s 

Persons to a Family i 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 

No. Families 73 469 532 525 473 308 173 84 

No. Persons 73 938 1596 2100 2365 1848 1211 672 

Persons to a Family 9 10 11 12 13 Total 

No. Families 58 22 13 6 1 2737 

No. Persons 522 220 143 72 13 ^773 

On analyzing the figures for all "families," we find 
that besides parents, children and relatives, servants, 
boarders and other persons are included. These elements 
were distributed among the households in the following 
proportions : 

*4.5 is the figure used by the Tenement House Department in esti- 
mating population from number of apartments. 
8 Abstracted from Tenement House Report, vol. ii, pp. 124-5. 



38 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [218 

Table VI 

COMPOSITION OF HOUSEHOLDS. FEDERAL CENSUS, I9OO 1 

Householders , 5772 39.4 % 

Children 6501 44.3 ft. 

Relatives 829 5.6% 

Servants 67 .5 % 

Boarders 1002 6.8 % 

Other Persons 16 . 1 % 

Institutions 168 1.1% 

Not Designated 320 2.2 % 

Total 14675 100% 

It will be seen from this table that the children are the 
most important item of the enumeration. This is true 
not only because of the actual numbers, but also by 
reason of their significance in the growth of the popula- 
tion. In this same year children were thus distributed 
among the families : 

Table VII 

NUMBER OF CHILDREN TO A HOUSEHOLD. FEDERAL CENSUS RETURNS, 1900 

Children to a 

Family . i 2 3 45678910 Totals 

Number of 

Families hav- House- 

ing given holds 

Number ... 827 s 658 619 479 310 168 80 47 19 13 1 3221 

Number of 

Children in Chil- 

such Fam- dren 

ilies 658 1238 1437 1240 840 480 329 152 117 10 6501 

It appears from these figures that families averaged 
two or three children each. In 1905 there were 7547 

1 These results are derived from the returns of the Federal Census, in 
the possession of the Tenement House Department. 

2 From this number should be deducted the 262 households having as 
heads single persons, widowed and married people living alone in 
homes without children. 



2IQ J ANALYSIS OF POPULATION ^g 

persons under twenty years, 41 per cent of the total 
population. Evidently the community does not increase 
rapidly by multiplication. For the year ending June 1, 
1905, the Department of Health recorded 486 births and 
312 deaths in the neighborhood. This gives a birth-rate 
of 26.36 per thousand, and a death-rate of 16.89. Ac- 
cordingly, the rate of genetic increase for that year was 
9.47 per mille. All these figures are low for an urban 
community. Applying the rate of multiplication to the 
numbers for 1900, we find that the population should 
have amounted in 1905 to 15,383' — a growth of only 5 
per cent as against an actual increase of 26 per cent. 
From these figures one would naturally conclude that 
the greater part of the increase in this section is due 
rather to the congregation of outsiders than to the 
growth of the native element. This fact, which is more 
or less true of all large cities, is capable of more precise 
demonstration in this community. 

It would be unfair to compare the development of 
Manhattanville with that of the city at large, since so 
many different factors have been involved. It is allow- 
able, however, to contrast the growth of this section 
with that of the Twelfth Ward as a whole. In 1865, the 
population of the ward was 28,259 ; 2 in 1900 it was 462,- 
227.3 For these same years Manhattanville numbered 
2,189 an d 14^75 people. On comparing the ratios of 
growth for the two, it is obvious that our community 
has not kept pace with the territory about it. If it had 
increased at the same rate, its population would now be 
more than double the present number. Of course its 

1 For the mathematics involved in this operation see Newsholme, 
Vital Statistics, pp. 5-7. The formula is P' = P (1 ± r) n . 
'Hough, op. cit. 3 T. H. Rept., vol. ii, p. 227. 



4 o A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [220 

narrowly restricted area, as compared with that of the 
entire ward, partly explains its diminishing importance. 1 
Still its comparatively early settlement would lead one to 
suppose that this might have become a thickly peopled 
center. We therefore conclude that some cause pre- 
vented people entering the section as rapidly as into ad- 
jacent neighborhoods. As already indicated, this hypo- 
thesis is correct. The slow growth is largely due to the 
location of Manhattanville. Its situation among the 
hills prevented it from obtaining access to the main lines 
of communication with the city. This meant that the 
incoming tides of population sweeping up the island 
passed farther east. Nevertheless, the neighborhood has 
attracted a goodly quota of transients and immigrants. 

Referring to Table VI (page 38), we note that in 1900 
10.7 per cent of the population was composed of board- 
ers, servants, inmates of institutions, and persons whose 
connections in the community were unknown. We may 
assume without much risk of error that practically all of 
these people were not vitally related to the population 
that has grown up here. Further investigation of the 
composition of households reveals the fact also that 1691 
heads of tenement families were foreign-born as against 
1046 native. Moreover, 82.83 per cent of all these per- 
sons were of foreign parentage. 2 Comparing these 
figures with those for the entire ward and for all Man- 
hattan, we have the following proportions : 

1 The section comprises 2.3 per cent, of the area of the ward. In 1865 
it contained 7.7 per cent of the population; in 1900, 3.1 per cent. 
2 T. H. Rept., vol. ii, pp. 61-3. 



22l] 



ANALYSIS OF POPULATION 
Table VIII 

NATIVITY AND PARENTAGE. HEADS OF FAMILIES, I9OO 



41 



Manhattanville. 
Tenement Households 

Non-tenement House- 
holds 

Total Households 

Ward XII. 
Tenement Households 

Non-tenement House- 
holds 

Total Households 

Manhattan. 
Tenement Households 

Non-tenement House- 
holds 

Total Households 



Native 


Born 


Native 
Parents 


Foreign 
Parents 


442 
13.72% 

in 

3-45% 


604 

18.75% 

100 
3-10% 



553 
17.17% 



16,583 
16.01% 

4,668 
4.5i% 

21,252 

20.52% 



40,495 
10.35% 

16,390 
4.19% 

56,885 

14.54% 



704 

21.85%! 



Total 

Native 



1,046 

32.47% 

211 

6-55% 

1,257 
39.02% 



19,519 
18.85% 

4,504 

4-35% 

24,023 

23.19% 



36,102 

34-86% 

9,172 
8.86% 

45,274 
43.7i% 



56,112 
14.35% 

14,090 

3.60% 

70,202 
17.95% 



96,607 

24.70% 

30,480 
7-79% 

127,087 

32.49% 



Foreign 
Born 



1,691 

52.50% 

273 
8.48% 

1,964 
60.98% 



Totals 



2,737 
84.97% 

484 

15.03% 

3,221 

100% 



49,210 

47.51% 

9,086 

8.77% 

58,296 
56.28% 



222,951 
57-01% 



85,312 
82.37% 

18,258 
17.63% 

103,570 
100% 



319,558 
81.71% 



41,038 71,518 
10.49% I 18.28% 

263,989 391,076 
67.50% 100% 



It will be seen from this table that our section has ac- 
quired a larger percentage of tenement families than the 
Ward or the Borough as a whole. Many of these people 
were thrifty foreigners, who valued a cheap and fairly 
comfortable home more than style or convenience in liv- 



1 Abstracted from T. H. Rept., vol. ii, pp. 61-3, 225-7, and from re- 
turns of the Federal Census. 



42 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ 2 22 

ing. Hence three-fifths of the households have sprung 
from persons born abroad. This proportion is not so 
great as that for all Manhattan with its Ghetto and its 
Hell's Kitchen ; but it is larger than the percentage for 
the Ward as a whole. The table on page 43 shows the 
number of years these foreigners have been in the 
country, and indicates the successive waves of immigra- 
tion that have flowed over the island. 

Evidently the Irish, German and English settlers were 
the earliest to arrive in numbers. Then followed the 
French and Swiss artizans and the Scandinavian work- 
men. Within the last twenty-five years the Jewish trades- 
man and the Slavic and Italian laborer have appeared. 
Over 40 per cent of these immigrants came to the United 
States between 1880 and 1890; not quite 30 per cent 
had landed before 1875. Of course this does not imply 
that they moved at once to Manhattanville. Conse- 
quently we are all the more impressed with the compara- 
tively recent aggregation of the present population. 

In 1905 the foreign-born numbered 5319, i. e., 28 per 
cent of the total population. Apparently the proportion 
of immigrants greatly diminished within five years. But 
if we should include the native-born children of foreign 
parents, the percentage of alien stock would be much 
higher. A fairer comparison with the figures for 1900 is 
the number of foreign-born males of voting age. In 
1905, from the canvass of eight blocks in the 5th, 9th 
and 10th Election Districts, we find that out of 1019 
potential voters, 534 were returned as natives. 1 Accord- 

1 These figures were taken from the lists of the district captains, 
which were based on the returns of the State Census for 1905. We are 
inclined to believe that political considerations interfered with the sci- 
entific accuracy of this enumeration (as subsequent protests have 
evinced). The blocks chosen are typical of the section however; and so 
far as the figures are given, they do not effect the accuracy of our results. 



22 3 ] 



ANALYSIS OF POPULATION 



43 




44 



A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE 



[224 



ing to this same enumeration, 16,222 persons in the 
neighborhood were classed as citizens; 1701 as aliens. 
Massing the evidence from the preceding analyses (es- 
pecially Tables VI, VIII, and IX), we should give as a 
conservative estimate, that from 70 to 80 per cent of the 
present population of Manhattanville is a comparatively 
recent social accretion. Probably less than the remain- 
ing 20 or 30 per cent is descended from earlier native 
residents of the locality. On this point, however, we 
shall have additional data to present when we consider 
the movements of the population. We must now pro- 
ceed to describe more specifically the composition of the 
present group. 

The primary classification of a social group is that ac- 
cording to age and sex, since these factors control the 
industrial and political efficiency of a population, as well 
as its fundamental ability to maintain and to increase its 
numbers. The composition of our neighborhood accord- 
ing to age periods for both sexes in 1905 is as follows: 1 



Table X 

AGE AND SEX 





Under 
1 year 


1 to 5 


5 to 20 


20 to 45 


45 to 65 


Over 65 


Total 


Males... 
Females. 


226 
249 


822 
893 


2,583 
2,774 


4,571 
4,323 


846 

955 


84 
150 


9,132 
9,344 


Totals. 


475 


i,7i5 


5,357 


8,894 


1,801 


234 


18,476 



The accompanying plate presents graphically the dis- 
according to the enumeration of the Dept. of Health for 1905. 



225] 



ANALYSIS OF POPULATION 



45 



PUttK 

Distribution oj Population 



Total Population, 1305. 

— lOiSVoTiritzalYottrs, » 
HtaJs of Households, ibOC. 




tribution for all ages (Plate A). The solid line shows 
the resultant curve for interpolated values, on averages. 1 
The dashed line is the smoothed curve for the ages of 
1019 potential voters, given for each year. Since their 
number is about one-fifth of the total males over twenty, 
this line was plotted on a unit scale of ordinates, five 
times that of the rest of the figure. Its close conformity 
to the upper sweep of the calculated curve is evidence of 



1 For the operations involved, see Bowley, Elements of Statistics, 
chap. 10. 



46 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [226 

their mutual agreement with the facts. The dotted line 
represents the distribution by age periods of the heads 
of households in 1900. 1 All these lines strengthen and 
confirm our impression of the population. The group is 
composed principally of young working people between 
the ages of sixteen and forty-five. There are compara- 
tively few old persons. 2 The upper limit for the three 
curves is between eighty-two and eighty-four. There 
are fewer males than females, and a considerably larger 
proportion of girls and old women than of males of like 
age. Only between twenty and forty-five do the men 
outnumber the women. The curves for males display a 
decided augmenting of numbers from sixteen to thirty- 
one years of age, marked by a well-defined mode at the 
latter point. This fact indicates that many young men 
come into the neighborhood in connection with their 
business. This is particularly true of the transportation 
interests. It might be thought that the proximity of 
Columbia and City College also effect this element. This 
surmise, however, we shall find is not correct, when we 
come to analyze the occupations of residents. 

The significance of these facts of demotic composition 
will be brought out more clearly when we treat of vital 
tendencies, and under movements of the population. It 
is sufficient at this point to have defined quantitatively our 
analysis of these classes in our group, and to point out 
the three great interests that seem to control their ex- 
istence. For it will be noted that the principal curves 
have three focal points that determine their character. 
These we may designate as the "health," "ambition" 
and "providence" centers. Our meaning will become 
plain if the reader will examine the main curve for males. 

federal returns. 2 Cf. Newsholm, op. cit., chapters 14-15. 



227] ANALYSIS OF POPULATION 47 

It will then be seen that the number of young boys tends 
to diminish with each additional year ; but that a counter 
tendency, represented by the focus of the lower part of 
the curve, seems to drag it back from its aberrant bent 
and to bring it up roundly to the years of youth. Then 
another attractive center appears to draw an increasing 
number into its orbit, and to swing them rapidly toward 
the dangerous pole of extinction. But here once more, 
a countervailing force checks the downward rush, and 
leads a slowly dwindling remnant into the quieter course 
of old age. 

I have called these centers the ''health," "ambition" 
and "providence" interests, 1 merely because these terms 
serve to indicate the influences that control the careers 
of individuals, and so the character of the population. It 
is first the ability to survive and develop that determines 
how many children shall grow to youth. Hence it is 
"health" that decides the existence of the people. Then 
ambition to make his livelihood or to achieve a career 
draws the youth away from school and home into the 
fierce competition of the city's labor market. Here the 
pace is an exhausting one, and if prudence and foresight 
did not restrain the young man's efforts, he might be 
morally and physically enervated before he arrived at a 
ripe age. This dominating influence of vigorous man- 
hood has, therefore, been called "ambition," because the 
word seems to express all those attractive forces that 
lead an individual or a people to expend themselves in 
the promotion of the world's business. But, finally, out 
of experience comes wisdom to save resources and to 

1 Although indebted to Professor Small for the general suggestion of 
''Health," "Wealth" and "Knowledge" interests, the writer would 
not caricature Dr. Small's system of thought by claiming that this 
partly symbolic use of terms is parallel to that of his former teacher. 



4 8 



A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE 



[228 



provide for the future of oneself and others. So this 
last influence leads a man away from the mad rush of 
affairs and prepares him for the gradual slowing down 
of age. 

Now if we compare the curves on the two sides of our 
helmet, we shall find that the girls are not quite so tena- 
cious as the boys in their hold on life, nor later so eager 
to gather about crude industrial opportunities. Home 
life outlines a more even course of activity. But its 
quieter way brings the compensation of less rapid ex- 
haustion. Either by personal or vicarious " providence" 
the average woman's life is prolonged beyond that of 
most men. 

How this conception of focal interests applies to the 
entire population of a section, we may better perceive as 
we proceed to analyze its life. We must now see how 
the two sides of our figure are related, i. e., the conjugal 
condition of the people. 

For 1900 the marital relations of the heads of house- 
holds were thus reported : 



Table XI 

CONJUGAL CONDITIONS. HEADS OF HOUSEHOLDS 



\ 


Single 


Married 


Widowed 


Sep- 
arated 


Divorced 


Un- 
known 


Totals 


Men ... 
Women . 


105 

45 


2,551 
2,551 


89 
335 


37 
43 


1 


15 


2,783 
2,987 


Total • 


150 


5,102 


424 


80 


1 


15 


5,772 



This represents that part of the population indicated 
by the dotted lines in Plate A. We have no means for 



229] ANALYSIS OF POPULATION 49 

knowing the conjugal conditions of boarders, relatives or 
servants. Nor is there any exact data for 1905. Mar- 
riages cannot readily be reported according to locality. 
Hence this item is obviously incomplete. The figures 
simply indicate the relative proportions of single and 
wedded persons among those who have attained a certain 
degree of independence in the community; and shows the 
number of widowed, separated and divorced among those 
who have been married. Naturally the heads of house- 
holds comprise most of the married people. Adding the 
number of couples to those reported as widowed or sepa- 
rated, we find that about 20 per cent of the population 
in 1900 had been married and were living in homes of 
their own. But we have no satisfactory statistics as to 
the rate or age of marriage. Our personal observation 
leads us to conclude that the majority of householders 
are young persons, who begin their conjugal career by 
renting a "small flat in Harlem." It will be noted also 
that the number of widows is comparatively large, over 
11 per cent of the married women having lost their help- 
mates. These are mostly Irish women past middle age, 
whose husbands have died from exposure or injuries in 
their rough work. It will be seen, too, that the question 
of divorce is a negligible factor in this neighborhood. 
This is doubtless due to the fact that most of the people 
belong to the Catholic Church, which does not sanction 
this method of annulling marital ties. The considerable 
number of separated persons merely indicates married 
people not living at the time in company with their 
spouses. Some of the women whose status was not in- 
dicated were doubtless widows. We should further re- 
mark that the number of single men of marriageable age 
is considerably in excess of that for women between 
twenty and forty-five years of age. This fact, as already 



50 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [230 

remarked, is due to the presence of many young fellows 
who are engaged in the transportation interests that 
center here. 

Having classified the population according to age, sex 
and marital condition, let us now see how it is composed 
in regard to national and ethnic stock. We have already 
indicated how successive waves of immigration set into 
the Hollow (see especially Tables VIII and IX). It 
yet remains to define the distribution of these elements 
according to nativity. The neighborhood is predomi- 
nantly American. But it is mainly American of Irish 
and German extraction. Out of 3221 heads of house- 
holds recorded in 1900, 1257 were native born. Of this 
number 11 74 were married or had been. To these par- 
ents were registered 2198 children out of a total of 6501. 
So that about one-third of the population is from native 
families. The table on the following page presents in 
detail the various ethnic elements. 

Teutonic and Celtic 1 stock preponderates, with a strain 
of Latin and Slavic blood. The Mediterranean peoples 
are represented by Italians, French and a handful of 
Greeks. Practically all of the Russians and Poles, as 
well as some Germans and Americans, are Jews, so that 
there is a small mixed Semitic element. But the Aryan 
type greatly outnumbers all others. The Negroes are 
practically the only exception to racial purity so far as 
color is concerned, the Chinese and Japanese being a 
negligible quantity. 

On the whole, we should say that this is a fairly 
homogeneous group as city populations go. About 85 
per cent of the people are descended from English- 

1 By Celtic stock is here meant the blending of the old Mediterranean 
and Alpine strains, best represented by Gaelic and Gallic varieties. 



tfO 



ANALYSIS OF POPULATION 
Table XII 

NATIVITY, RACE AND ETHNIC STOCK. POPULATION, I905 

United States 13,157 

Ireland 2,008 

Germany 1,684 



51 



England 

Italy 

Russia 

Austro- Hungary . 

Scotland 

Scandinavia 

France 

Poland 

Bohemia 

Greece 

China 

Japan 

Various 



352 

273 

180 

155 Native Whites.. 12,210 

105 Foreign Whites. 5,269 

93 Colored 997 

88 

24 

19 

18 

13 

1 
306 



Total 



18,476 



Mixed 316 
Negroes 983 


Slavs 174 


Russian Jews 204 


Latins 361 


Celts 2,113 


Teutons 2,115 



speaking ancestry. The only decided antipathy is that 
existing between the Irish and the Negroes. In regard 
to amalgamation, there are unfortunately no compre- 
hensive statistics for our section. In 1900, fifty-six 
heads of households were reported as of mixed origin. 
Sixteen of this number were foreign born. Evidently 
entangling alliances were comparatively infrequent in 
the first generation. But this rule does not apply with 
the same force to those reared here. As a matter of 
observation, we are of the opinion that the ingratiating 
Irish lad is the best "mixer." Buxom German girls 
are rather generally sought in domestic partnership. It 
should be remembered too, that in this neighborhood, 
religious lines are not sharply defined. Most of the 
people, except the Negroes and Jews, tend toward 
Catholicism. Chromatic race intermixture is rare, except 



52 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [232 

for possible clandestine relations. 1 A few mulattoes and 
half-breeds are known to the writer. 



1 Upon this question of intermixture, the reader is referred to chapter 
9 of F. A. Bushee's Ethnic Factors in the Population of Boston. The 
data there presented confirms in general our own conclusion. 



CHAPTER III 
The Social Temper 

We now come to speak of the social temper of the 
local population. Let us first recall some of the forma- 
tive influences at work in the development of the neigh- 
borhood. Most important from the physical side, has 
been the situation of Manhattanville. Tucked away 
between the hills, almost a mile from Haarlem and eight 
from Bowling Green, the Hollow Way was little noticed 
until the time of the Revolution. With the extension 
of Bloomingdale Road, the region gained a route of 
direct access from the city. Then the history of the 
village began. But its location always limited the de- 
velopment of the place. It became a small settlement 
on the stage line, and in the fifties acquired railway 
transportation. A few industries moved in. Still the 
village was more or less dependent upon the local econ- 
omy of Harlem. When the first car lines and the 
elevated roads came north, they passed east of the cliffs 
that face that side of " New York's Transvaal." Only 
within the last five years has the subway made Man- 
hattanville an easily accessible section of the metropolis. 

The effects of this comparative seclusion for many 
years, established the economy of the village. It was a 
little community off the main thoroughfares. Its road- 
houses and post-office, its local court and streets with 
cottages, made it a small center in itself. Old residents 
tell how the people from the scattered houses on the 
233] 53 



54 ^ STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [234 

hills and the little farms along the road, used to go 
down to the stores in "The Village" for their supplies. 
The first Protestant church became a sort of missionary 
outpost. The Catholic leaders "went down to the City" 
to see the authorities about securing land for a place of 
worship for the foreign people settling in the valley. 
The convent and church schools were founded "in Man- 
hattanville." So much for traditions. All this is pass- 
ing rapidly. The avenues have cut through the old 
streets ; the tenements are displacing the frame houses ; 
the settlers are swallowed up in the city. 

We have seen how successive waves of immigration 
broke over the hills : first Dutch, British- Americans and 
a few negro freemen, like an advancing spray; then two 
solid impacts of Irish and German workingmen that 
filled in the valley. These were succeeded by slighter 
accessions of British, French and Swiss artisans ; follow- 
ing whom came Scandinavian and Slavic workers ; and 
latterly a rising tide of Jewish merchants and Italian 
laborers. All the while this mixed current carried with 
it numbers of born New Yorkers from the lower city, 
and young people from nearby towns. This flow has 
brought elements and left a residuum, the character of 
which we must now attempt to analyze. 

The Irish. First in importance among the social 
increments are the Irish. They numbered 2008 in 1905. 
Perhaps one-third of the present population (i. e., about 
6200 persons) is of Irish parentage. The original settle- 
ment was along Old Broadway and Byrd Street (" Pig 
Alley"). The greater number of "Macks" is still to 
be found in the northern end of Manhattanville, where 
their descendants constitute more than half the local in- 
habitants. They have overflowed into the tenements 



2 35 J THE SOCIAL TEMPER 



00 



along Amsterdam Avenue, across 125th Street and about 
the lower end of Convent Avenue. These households 
consist for the most part of married couples with their 
children, and also of a considerable number of young 
single men and women wage-earners. The workers 
were formerly engaged in rough labor and personal 
service, but of late there has been a decided tendency 
toward commercial lines and public offices. 

The traits of the typical Irishman are well defined. 1 
Physically he is rather slight and wiry. The local variety 
tends to brunetteness and blue-gray eyes. Motor re- 
actions are apt to be prompt but intermittent. One of 
the favorite Irish games is handball. There were for- 
merly two public courts in connection with saloons in 
our neighborhood. 2 Several well-spotted walls and 
fences bear witness to the cultivation of this pastime by 
the boys. The prowess of Irishmen in all sports requir- 
ing speed, energy and individual dexterity, is well 
known. The lads are doughty ''scrappers" and ball- 
players. Their great weakness is a tendency to go to 
pieces under strain, and to become rather wild. A club 
leader's task is to restrain such boys under excitement, 
and to keep them together when discouraged. In their 
recreation the young people seek active diversion 
eagerly. The boys clamor for athletic games, and do 
not take kindly to lectures and set events where there 
is "nothing doing." As entertainment, dancing par- 
ties, dramatic recitations, farces and impromptu debates 
succeed best. Such activity is perhaps characteristic of 
most young people. But it is no uncommon sight to 

1 For an admirable presentation, see Krans, Irish Life in Irish Fic- 
tion, with references. The writer is indebted to this analysis for its 
apt characterization of certain fundamental Irish qualities. 

2 One, by the River, has recently been turned into a stable. 



56 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [236 

see a married man come home with a bat over his 
shoulder, or a group of grizzled worthies discussing the 
merits of a local champion. There used to be a gang of 
young bucks from the Village and the Eighth Avenue 
settlement, who made the field next to City College 
their " hang-out." Here they would play and wrangle 
half the summer days, occasionally levying toll on out- 
siders, in the form of a ball or the price of a can of beer, 
for the privilege of using the diamond. There is a story 
that one stout leader was born under the bleachers, and 
seldom left, except in bad weather, to seek food. 

The Irish in the large are impulsive, reckless and in- 
tensely sympathetic. In fact there is a certain noble 
scorn for a man who does not plunge into a fight or a 
revel without stopping to consider the consequences. 
When thoroughly aroused, an Irishman becomes a dan- 
gerous antagonist, although he is quick to recognize a 
worthy rival. He has a tendency to chafe under re- 
straint, but responds loyally to kindly authority. The 
representative Irishman is light-hearted, quick-tempered, 
enthusiastic. His emotional nature is readily kindled; 
and if it does not burn with a constant flame, that is 
probably due to the ardor of its blaze. Charity visitors 
know that Irish families are wont to be generous and 
improvident to a marked degree. 1 As a people they are 
fond of festivity, of singing and dancing — of ballads 
rather than arias, of jigging more than minuets. The 
black Celt has a certain lyric quality that adds charm 
and fervor to his personal relations. 2 It is difficult to 
define such a nature in a word. The traditional tem- 

J The records of the Riverside District show that the number of ap- 
plications for aid from Irish families is considerably in excess of their 
proportion in the local population— in December, 1908, about 4 to 1. 

2 Cf. H. Driesman, Das Keltentum, passim. 



2^7] THE S0CIAL TEMPER ~y 

peraments do not seem to apply exactly. At bottom, 
the nervous disposition is "sthenic." J This factor would 
probably identify many Irish with the choleric type, 2 
although certain sanguine traits are marked. At all 
events, our Celtic neighbors are not phlegmatic. 

Intellectually, the average Irishman is shrewd rather 
than critical; clever rather than consistent. He is cur- 
ious to try a novelty, but not apt to fix his attention 
upon a complex problem for a long time. He is too 
open to suggestion and subject to emotions to make a 
uniformly good investigator, although he can "size up" 
a situation in a remarkably short time. In exemplifica- 
tion of these traits we may mention the avidity with 
which night-school pupils in such Irish neighborhoods 
select classes with interesting subjects of instruction, 
and the rapidity with which they tend to drop off when 
the "dead grind" begins to appear. Library returns 
show that our neighbors are fond of exciting tales and 
burlesque. Despite a certain love of variety however, 
the Irish are not fond of radical innovations. In fact 
they have a certain distrust of new and untried meas- 
ures, and accept the assertions of a recognized authority 
with considerable docility. American conditions tend 
to increase a skeptical frame of mind ; but at bottom 
there is much credulity in the Irish nature. The use of 
charms and relics is not unknown among our neighbors. 
A report spreads rapidly among such people, and is apt 
to become confirmed, unless it goes too much "agin' 
the grain." A man can gain an enviable reputation by 
a few clever performances, and by refraining from too 
constant trials of his powers. An acquaintance of the 

1 Cf. Manouvrier, Jour. d. VInst. d'Anthro., vol. 8. 

2 Cf. Fouillee, Temperament et charactZre. 



58 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [238 

writer thus acquired considerable renown as an athlete 
among certain clubs by a well-timed exhibition of skill. 
The Irish, perhaps more than many other people, are 
not accustomed to test their judgments by objective 
facts, but reason rather from analogy. Not seldom they 
allow imagination to take the bit of evidence and bolt 
into desirable conclusions. This leads us finally to re- 
mark, that the peculiar raciness and whimsicality of 
fancy, called "Irish wit," is probably due rather to rapid 
and eccentric inference, than to profound and penetrat- 
ing analysis. The evidence is — the spontaneity of the 
humor. 

Some of the early Irish settlers in Manhattanville were 
forced to emigrate because of the difficulty of getting a 
living at home. But for the most part they came, led 
by the desire to improve their conditions. Not a few 
have attained positions of some social consideration ; 
have raised their standard of living materially; and are 
now able to impress their will upon the actions of other 
men. Thus the mere struggle for existence has largely 
given place to the ambition to rise in the world and to 
achieve a reasonably complete mode of life. This de- 
velopment has had its effect upon Irish disposition and 
character. At first rather plain and unpretentious, the 
immigrants have readily adopted the standards of their 
new home, and have acquired a more sophisticated and 
complex attitude toward life. The more ambitious and 
persistent have risen rapidly, and have won their way to 
positions of influence in the community. Others have 
been caught in the subtilties of the city, and have be- 
come practically dependent upon social backing. In this 
respect the Irish do not differ essentially from most 
elements in the urban population, but they present per- 
haps more striking contrasts in the relative status of the 



239] THE S0CIAL TEMPER rg 

second generation. In general, the Irishman has suc- 
ceeded best by following a leader, and by quickly ac- 
commodating his actions to the wishes of his constitu- 
ents. He will on occasions strain a point to favor a 
friend, appeal to ancient loyalties and present partisan 
claims with rather more persuasive frankness than other 
men who may adopt practically the same methods. 
This ability to ingratiate himself, to "jolly the crowd," 
and to turn a pretty compliment, are amiable qualities, 
which the Irishman uses to good advantage. He is 
primarily an instigator. 1 

The life of our neighborhood does not controvert the 
Hibernian reputation for conviviality. Our Celtic friends 
are fond of fun and the social glass. A majority of the 
saloons show names of Irish proprietors, who are well 
patronized by their compatriots. An Erse proverb has 
it, that "Contention is better than loneliness." Some 
of our neighbors illustrate the saying. When warmed 
by a drink, Pat waxes demonstrative, and will not scorn 
a fight if it comes his way. 2 He is perhaps overready to 
take the law into his own hands when provoked. 3 His 
home may fall into some disorder when work is not 
steady, as not infrequently happens. But the Irishman 
is not dishonest; and his "women-folks" are by nature 
"straight and clean." A powerful restraint from serious 
offenses is exercised by the authority of the Catholic 

1 Cf. Giddings, Inductive Sociology, pp. 77-9. The definition of char- 
acter in these sections is based upon the logical analysis presented in 
Professor Giddings' work. 

2 The records of the Harlem Magistrate's Court show that four out of 
twelve arrests on the charge of drunkenness and disorderly conduct, 
made within the local precinct during four months last year, were of 
residents giving Ireland as their native home. May they never do 
worse ! 

3 Three out of twelve cases of assault for the same period. 



60 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [240 

Church. There is an undoubted tendency to boisterous 
mirth. But the Irish have few mean streaks. Roguery 
is the perversion of a fundamentally open nature. To 
sum up our estimate of the type of mind displayed, 
we may designate it as " Ideo-Emotional," z active and 
adaptable. 

These personal characteristics express themselves in 
rather well-defined social reactions. The latter can be 
fully described only by considering the life of the com- 
munity as a whole. But the Irish form such an import- 
ant factor in public activities, that an understanding of 
their modes of co-operation is essential to comprehend 
some forms of the local social economy. We refer here 
especially to a certain clanishness in Irish organizations. 
Perhaps the long historical development of compara- 
tively isolated groups in subjection to paternal and 
feudal authority, may partly account for this trait. 2 It 
is undoubtedly true that parental control frequently 
assumes more vigorous forms than in American families. 
The Irish rear their children as well as they can, and 
expect them later to assume the burden of supporting 
the home. Many young women among our neighbors 
turn over their entire earnings to their mothers, and 
receive back a small amount for pin-money. The boys 
are rather more independent. The indignation and dis- 
may of elderly parents when ambitious children and 
relatives will no longer contribute to their support, is 
both pathetic and illustrative of a transformation in 
domestic life. 

This same allegiance to kith and kin is carried over 
into public life. Local and national ties are kept strong 

1 Cf. Giddings, op. cit., pp. 86-7. 

2 Cf. Darbois de Jubainville, La Famille celtique. 



24 1 ] THE SOCIAL TEMPER fa 

by secret and open associations. An Irish newspaper 
has a small circulation in our neighborhood. Little 
groups will gather to dance and sing songs of the Old 
Country. Perhaps f such manifestations may be con- 
sidered sentimental, but they are neither trivial nor 
alarming. They reveal a native fondness for personal 
bonds, which goes far toward explaining the Irishman's 
tendencies in politics. He will ally himself with the 
organization that recognizes his needs and will attempt 
to satisfy the ambitions of his people. He is "agin' the 
government," merely as an impersonal instrument of 
repression. He will submit to an indefinite amount of 
bossing, if he is convinced that the tyrant has his wel- 
fare at heart. But if the system becomes inhumanely 
cold and oppressive, he will revolt. Such rebellions 
have been frequent in the political history of Manhattan- 
ville. The section has been a veritable thorn in the side 
of the Republican districts north and south of it. It 
has been moreover, the scene of many internal dissen- 
tions. The Irishman is a Democrat, and a good parti- 
san. He will rally about a leader who will show interest 
in his personal affairs, and fight loyally for him. A 
stirring appeal, a clear slogan, will rouse his enthusiasm 
to a white heat. This may not be far-sighted conduct, 
but it is intensely human. Such an interpretation of the 
nature of Tammany Hall's most important constituency, 
may explain the success of its methods. A reform 
movement may preach economy and abstract justice 
with little effect, if it does not actually touch the people. 
And many of our people are Irish. 

The Irish are Catholics, traditionally and conscien- 
tiously. It is not too much to say that they are the best 
church-people in our section. That is, formally or with 
devotion, they pay respect to the ordinances of their 



62 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [242 

congregation. Young men will sometimes rise at six to 
attend mass before going off for a Sunday tramp or a 
game of base-ball. The Irish are impressed by the 
power of the church and the ponfp of its celebrations. 
They enjoy the relief it offers to their restless imagina- 
tion. If the priest be a man of sympathy and ability, he 
becomes an object of admiration. Indeed he may share 
a place with the other idols of the people — the successful 
athlete and the influential politician. 

The Germans are in many ways a striking contrast 
to the Irish. Led to emigrate by the political dis- 
turbances of 1848, the former sought homes here with 
freer conditions. The first lot were Bavarians. They 
settled in cottages along old willow-bordered Lawrence 
Street. This section is still the German center. But 
many of those who have come within the last twenty-five 
years have spread up Amsterdam Avenue, where their 
names adorn the signs of most of the grocery and pro- 
vision stores. The late comers include many North 
Germans and Rheinlanders, and the economic tempo of 
the colony has been notably briskened. In 1905 the 
German-born in Manhattanville numbered 1684 — about 
9 per cent of the local population. Perhaps 3800 per- 
sons are of German parentage. 

As known to us, the German type is rather mixed. 
Both blondes and brunettes appear, but the latter seem 
to prevail. Perhaps brown hair and blue or hazel eyes 
best represent the mean. 1 In stature, our Teutonic 
friends are rather stocky, but appear under the height of 
the average American. 2 Their reactions are slow and 

1 Such points are easily observed by carefully noting the appearance 
of crowds of school children and church-goers when dismissed. 
2 To this point there are many exceptions. 



2 43 ] THE SOCIAL TEMPER 63 

strong. The writer can recollect few first-rate German 
pitchers or basket-ball forwards in any of the local clubs 
with which he has been connected. The boys make 
better gymnasts than athletes. It is difficult to name 
any characteristic German sport, unless it be Turnen or 
Kneipen. Music is perhaps the most popular diversion, 
preferably in the form of choral singing or orchestral 
societies. A good lecture is heard with satisfaction. 
Costume parties are also much enjoyed. The German is 
constitutionally less restless than the Irish or American, 
and is content with a picnic in the park or a quiet even- 
ing of pinochle, such as would seem rather tame to the 
latter. But one feature of the entertainment should not 
be forgotten — cakes and beer. With this basis of dis- 
cussion, Mein Herr can produce enough material for 
consideration from his inner consciousness. 

The German is concentric and intensive. 1 He has a 
rich emotional life that suffuses much of his thinking. 
It is because of this subjective element that most rela- 
tions acquire for him strong personal connotations 
(which process he often endeavors to explain in general 
terms). Perhaps we have here the constitutional basis 
for German idealism. However that may be, it is plain 
to one who has lived with Germans, that their feelings 
when aroused, continue to glow like a smouldering coal. 
Their sympathies are rather quick and lasting. They do 
not soon forget a favor or an injury, although it may not 
be mentioned. They are apt to be prudent and thrifty, 
but not seldom have a stubborn bias towards some pre- 
ferred course of action. Such a temperament would or- 
dinarily be termed phlegmatic. Gemuthlichkeit is a 
characteristic trait of German life. 

1 Cf. Hans Meyer, Das deutsche Volkstum, p. 12, et seq. This analy- 
sis has furnished the writer several mental hooks on which to hang his 
observations. 



64 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [244 

"It takes a Dootchman a long while to make up his 
mind ; and whin he has done so, it takes longer to get 
the notion out uv 'is head." This judgment states the 
impression made upon a Celtic neighbor by the German 
intellect. It is true that German thought is more grund- 
lich than many other types. Its slow but comprehensive 
movement makes for system and care in detail. It is 
fundamentally honest, even to the point of Grubelei. 
Doubtless the German method of life, and the language 
itself, demands synthetic thinking. 1 This trait may ex- 
plain why Germans at times appear dull and heavy. 
They have not the simple logic of the English, nor the 
lively imagination of the Celt. Their realm of ideas is. 
more involved and mysterious. Hence they are not 
witty, but broadly humorous, or komisch. It must not 
be supposed however, that our Teutonic friends are all 
philosophers. It is rather a fund of sound common- 
sense that carries most of them through. They simply 
are not easily borne off their feet by contagious example. 
A minority have developed this critical independence to 
the point of scepticism, and announce themselves as 
Freethinkers and Socialists. But with this reflective 
tendency goes an almost childlike enjoyment of simple 
emotional and intellectual pleasures, like the joys of a 
summer garden or the satisfaction einen guten Roman 
zu lesen. In fact this element of personal sentiment 
colors even abstract thinking, and makes a man's views 
as much a part of himself as his more material posses- 
sions. For this reason it is sometimes difficult to win 
the confidence of the German whose traditions and loyal- 
ties one does not share. 

In his way of going at things also, the German shows 
a complex nature. On the one hand, he has a desire to 
1 Cf. Meyer, loc. cit. 



24 5] THE SOCIAL TEMPER 65 

"eat things up," i. e., to overmaster, consume and as- 
similate the best in a situation. On the other hand, with 
admirable self-mastery, he proceeds by indirect methods 
to comprehend and control the fundamental conditions. 
He is, as a rule, patient and industrious, temperate and 
provident. But at times an extravagant fancy may lead 
him to leave all and follow his desire. Also kommen 
Wanderung und Bummelei. These are but striking in- 
stances of the eternal conflict between impulse and idea. 
On the whole, however, the German is remarkably steady 
and level-headed. He has, moreover, a fair sense of pro- 
portion. If music and sandwiches are reasonable, he 
will have them both together. If the entertainment is 
expensive, he will wear his black coat with prim precis- 
ion. The German is thus a mixture of sense and sensi- 
bility. That is, convivial and conscientious traits blend 
in him, without much obtrusion of the Puritanic virtues. 
Occasionally, however, this negative form of righteous- 
ness appears in an insistence on social conventions. 
This is illustrated by the case of a German neighbor, who 
remonstrated with a country-woman on the neglected 
condition of the latter's children. " Not dat I care so 
much dat dey are dirty, but to go wit'out shoes on Sun- 
tayl " Despite such logical inversions, the Germans 
have an ability for speculation. Our neighbors are fond 
of reading and friendly discussion. If a man confronts 
you with an allusion to philosophy or economics, five 
chances to one he is a Jew or a German. To summarize 
these impressions, we may characterize the German type 
of mind as rationally-sentimental.* 

^his term is used to distinguish the type from Professor Giddings* 
"Ideo-Emotional" class. Although the same fundamental elements 
are involved (EIM), their characteristic variants are differently com- 
bined, comprising certain features of the "Critical-Intellectual" variety. 
See Inductive Sociology, pp. 85-89. 



66 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [246 

In a few households with which the writer is acquainted, 
the older members do not speak nor read English. In 
many, German is the ordinary medium of conversation 
between the " grown-ups." Frequently the children are 
taught to understand the mother-tongue, but are gene- 
rally loath to use it. Five German newspapers have gen- 
eral circulation in our neighborhood. Two of these may 
be characterized as popular and newsy; the others, as 
domestic, commercial and socialistic, respectively. From 
the rather uncertain returns of local newsdealers, we 
conclude that the popular type of paper outsells the 
other, followed by the family sheet " mit hochinteressan- 
ten Romanen." The business Zeitung is consulted much 
by those in search of positions; the socialistic one by 
those who have adopted more radical tenets. The small 
collection of German stories in the Speyer School Li- 
brary has been throughly read by elder members of the 
local settlement. This fact of the wide persistence of 
the language shows a high degree of social energy on 
the part of the Germans. For though most of them can 
use English satisfactorily for transacting their affairs, 
they wish to maintain the associations of the Father- 
land. 

This brings us finally to consider one more character- 
istic of the German. Although he prizes freedom, as 
citizen he is essentially ein Gesellschaftsglied. 1 That is, 
while he insists upon a large measure of personal liberty, 
he is not fundamentally independent. He enters Ameri- 
can public life as a political refugee from a small Euro- 
pean state. He is a communicant in one of two great 
congregations, or perhaps a member of a small circle of 
Free-thinkers. He is identified with a certain trade and 

1 Cf. Meyer, op. cit. 



24 7] THE SOCIAL TEMPER fry 

represents a definite class in society. Thus we have seen 
our neighbors appear as Bavarian Catholic workmen or 
Lutheran merchants from Prussia. American life has 
broken up these early stratifications. But still they ap- 
pear as the historic basis in German social life. The 
Burgher respects authority, and recognises gradations 
in society. He is not essentially democratic, but inclines 
to be a bureaucrat. This is shown by a certain touchi- 
ness when he is among strangers, and an equal assur- 
ance in his attitude toward those he can command. A 
German overseer expects his men to toe the mark; and 
a Hausfrau is exacting, though kindly to her maid. 
This general attitude may explain certain positions of 
Germans in social matters. They are apt to be rather 
strict conservatives or thorough-going reconstruction- 
ists. Both tendencies are probably due to the funda- 
mental satisfaction in system and regulation. 

The English supply the connecting link between 
European life and American economy. This is true both 
historically and ethnologically. We have seen how the 
early development of Manhattanville was affected by 
conditions arising out of the Revolution. Many early 
landholders in this section were of British descent and 
traditions. 1 But subsequent growth left this line of trans- 
mission and gained other characteristics, some of which 
we have just been attempting to analyze. Still a con- 
siderable English element has filtered in. In 1900, 
134 heads of households were so registered; and in 1905, 
352 English persons were numbered. We may say, 
therefore, that at the present time approximately 750 
people in our neighborhood are of English parentage. 

1 Cf. p. 23 supra. 



68 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [248 

Unlike the Irish and German colonists, the English 
did not come in great numbers at one time and settle 
in a definite section. It would be difficult to designate 
any part of our neighborhood as the British region. 
These people are scattered in the moderately good houses 
along middle Amsterdam Avenue and on 125th Street. 
Most of them came over twenty-five years ago. Some 
were interested in the iron-furnace that was formerly 
at the River and 143rd Street ; but the majority seem 
to have drifted in with the ordinary flow of population. 

English traits are, in a sense, mediating expressions 
between those Celtic and Teutonic characteristics that 
we have considered, and the American qualities that 
must presently be discussed. 1 The traditional English- 
man is tall, square-shouldered and sandy. To this de- 
scription there are many exceptions, according to the 
region from which our Briton comes. But in general, 
we may regard the characterization as apt. Height is 
not so noticeable ; 2 but there is a certain clean blocking- 
out of the Englishman's frame, that indicates activity 
and strength. 3 The rosy, smooth-skinned variety is not 
so evident here as in better surroundings. The English 
youth is vigorous and adventurous, fond of athletic 

1 For general treatment, Demolins' Anglo-Saxon Superiority, 
Boutmy's English People and Gorren's Anglo-Saxons and Others, may 
be mentioned. The analysis of the latter is here adopted so far as it 
applies to local conditions. 

2 The writer must explain, that in estimating the stature of these peo- 
ple, he may have a tendency to understate impressions; since he is 
somewhat above average height himself, and leans toward judging by 
the level of his own eyes. In what follows on measurements of chil- 
dren, however, there is objective basis for this opinion. 

3 Such statements are based upon observation in the Speyer School 
gymnasium and baths, where registrations of members' parentage, etc., 
are also kept. 



249] THE S0CIAL TEMPER 69 

games, and a good " stayer " in such sports as soccer 
foot-ball and distance running. 

Emotionally, the Englishman is more self-possessed 
than the Irish or American. This gives him greater 
evenness in performance, if not such brilliant bursts. 
His temperament is mixed, characterized by a fairly 
prompt and steady reaction. Intellectually, the Eng- 
lishman is marked by the direct and practical turn of his 
thought. He has little taste for subtlety and abstrac- 
tion ; but reasons straight from the facts to his conclu- 
sion, without much criticism of premises. 1 If the hypo- 
thesis works — all right ! There is a sturdy independence 
in such belief, that asks not confirmation, but conformity. 

The Saxon is fond of good things, and proceeds with 
great energy to obtain them for himself. He likes to 
dominate the situation, and admires vigor in others. 
The type with which the writer is best acquainted is 
hard-working and self-controlled. There is a less stal- 
wart variety however, of more convivial habits, whose 
career is not marked by consistent progress. But at 
bottom, the English character is straightforward and 
honest, willing to accept a given situation and work it 
out practically. Gorren also notes a " clean, stiff mod- 
esty and moral shamefacedness," 2 which we may attri- 
bute to our more representative neighbors. Such a 
nature is both forceful and conscientious. We may 
characterize the type of mind as dogmatic-motor? 

x Cf. Boutmy, op. cit., pt. i, ch. 3. 2 Op. cit., p. 13J. 

: '' Again with apologies to Professor Giddings, in order to distinguish 
this type — ideally "IME" — from the lower " Ideo-Motor ; " and to 
imply an intellectual element, not properly "Critical." Compare In- 
ductive Sociology, p. 86. Our present purpose is not to attempt the 
quantitative division of national groups into standard classes — for which 
we have not data sufficiently exact and comprehensive. It is rather to 



JO A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [250 

Socially, the Englishman is an individualist. That is, 
he is essentially independent and self-centered, and tends 
toward insularity in his intercourse. 1 He is not a "good 
mixer," but tends to maintain a certain aloofness from 
the other races and different social classes. As an ex- 
ample of this attitude, we may mention the remark of a 
member of the Mother's Club, to the effect that the con- 
duct of certain children reflected directly the inferior 
character of their hard-working parents, who happen to 
be Irish. Those who have been engaged in settlement 
work will recognize " a certain condescension " on the 
part of English residents — especially University men — 
in their intercourse with the people. In illustration of 
this same attitude from a different point of view, the 
writer may cite a story told him by a working man, who 
had occasion to call at a fashionable residence. Misled 
by his neat appearance, the new boy showed him to the 
reception room and announced him as "a gentleman." 
The man was amused at the incident and said, " When I 
got 'ome, I told the Missus, 'Go 'way! I'm associatin' 
with swells now.' " 

This same lack of broad sympathy may explain the 
corporate ethics of the English. They are accustomed 
to regard collective agencies as existing essentially for 
the promotion of personal interests. So long as these 
are realized, the form of control does not much matter. 

characterize each type as accurately as possible, so as to present it as a 
more or less definite factor in the total population. The procedure is 
comparable to that of making a composite picture from representative 
portraits of members of a class or inhabitants of a province. The result 
is not an accurate depiction of the national ideal, nor of any single in- 
dividual. But it does convey a reasonably distinct impression of the 
traits of the local ethnic varieties. Perhaps this is as far as Descriptive 
Sociology may venture without seeking the precision of Statistics. 
1 Cf. Bushee, Ethnic Factors in the Population of Boston, p. 153. 



25 1 ] THE SOCIAL TEMPER y t 

But when individual rights are trenched upon, the princi- 
ple must be altered. On the other hand, because the 
practical imagination does not readily interpret the feel- 
ings of different sorts of men, the successful policy may 
be pushed to cruel lengths. Thus we observe the ruth- 
less efficiency of English colonial administration in the 
East. The Manchester philosophy only gradually yields 
to larger ideals of cooperation. The Englishman has 
trusted rather to shaping the situation, than to persuad- 
ing men. The social units are assumed to be more or 
less established in their various capacities, though hav- 
ing the inalienable right to improve their condition, if 
possible. On the whole, men are elements to be arranged 
and combined, instead of enlarged and blended. This 
essentially common-sense view of social life is rather 
characteristic of English thought in general ; and has to 
a great extent tempered American economy, especially 
in the great commercial centers of the East. Even Man- 
hattanville has not escaped the Tendenz, and is rapidly 
acquiring a more imperialistic point of view. 

The Scotch and Scandinavians need not detain us 
long. The former numbered 56 households in 1900, and 
105 individuals in 1905. Perhaps 250 persons in our 
neighborhood are of Scottish-born parentage. Although 
the stock is of recent introduction as compared with 
those already treated, a dozen families were reported in 
1900 with native-born heads of Scotch origin. These 
people are scattered through the houses belonging to 
the period of the nineties along 125th Street and upper 
Amsterdam Avenue. Many of the men are engaged in 
the building and mechanical trades. 

This strain is an ethnic link between the western Celts 
and the northern Teutons. Their long, lean, angular 



72 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ 2 $2 

frames, high cheek-bones, sandy-brown hair and grey or 
hazel eyes, give them a closer resemblance to the typical 
American stock than any other. 1 Their reactions, so far 
as observed, are rather slow but persistent. 2 A native 
tendency to emotion has been tempered by northern 
phlegm, so that the Scot at first seems rather dour? 
There is, however, a dry humor and moist conviviality 
among this people. The Scotch are proverbially canny, 
but somewhat inclined to be narrow and suspicious. 
Their views are based upon personal conviction, and 
their reasoning is more logical than original. They are 
as a rule, thrifty and honest, not without a tendency to 
be "a little nigh." Yet with all his ability for self- 
denial, the Scot is noted for hospitality. Such a char- 
acter would be classed as "Austere," and the type of 
mind as " Dogmatic Emotional." 4 This nature leads the 
Scotch to be Protestants and Independents. They do 
not appear distinctly as a political or religious unit in 
our neighborhood, however, but are absorbed in the gen- 
eral life of the community. Traditionally, they are loyal 
to the clan or congregation ; but are capable of wider 
allegiances, because of their intellectual grasp. 

The Scandinavians are our most remote Teutonic rela- 
tives. They have not lived in this neighborhood in 
numbers for longer than twenty years. Only one 
native-born head of a household from this stock was 
reported in 1900. At that time there were 63 families 
with Scandinavian parents; and in 1905, there were re- 

\Cf. Hanna, The Scotch-Irish, vol. i, pp. 170-3. The writer is in- 
debted to this work for several apt characterizations. 

2 Such statements are based upon general observation of street life and 
visiting. The Scotch element is not numerous enough to appear 
strongly in local social clubs. 

3 C/. Hanna, op. cit., p. 120. 4 Cf. Giddings, loc. cit. 



2 53 ] THE SOCIAL TEMPER 73 

corded 93 persons born in these countries. Perhaps 200 
would cover the present number of people from such 
parentage. These are mostly Swedes. The families are 
widely scattered. The men are engaged mainly in the 
building trades. 

The Scandinavian type is well marked 1 — tall, fair and 
energetic. Slow but sure, courageous and terrible in 
anger, with a tinge of melancholy and a strange con- 
tradiction in his naturally strong will, the Northman is 
a mighty toiler and a sturdy individual. To a simple 
and straightforward nature is added a wild sense of 
romance, which often makes the Scandinavian a mystery 
to more subtle minds. He is industrious and frugal ; 
less ambitious than the American perhaps, less pushing 
than the English. But he works out his purpose, and 
establishes his personality in freedom. Drink is a strong 
enemy to some. The better sort would be called "Con- 
scientious" and "Intellectual," with certain "Forceful" 
and "Emotional" traits well marked. 2 

These characteristics differ, of course, with the variety 
of Scandinavians represented. The southern Swedes, be- 
cause of industrial development, are shrewd and cosmo- 
politan. They have been called "The Germans of the 
North." 3 The northern Swedes are more aristocratic 
and conservative. Because of their social graces they 
have been called "The Frenchmen of the North." The 
Norwegians are considered colder and more radical than 
either. Hence they have been dubbed "The English- 
men of the North." The Danes have also been com- 

1 Cf. O. N. Nelson, History of Scandinavians in the United States, 
vol. i, ch. 1. 

2 Cf. Giddings, lor. cit. 

3 Cf. Nelson, op. cit., p. 24. 



74 A STUDY OF MANHATTANV1LLE [254 

pared with the English, but are said to show marks of 
continental modes. 1 

As citizens, Scandinavians are quickly naturalized and 
assimilated. They are remarkably well educated, and 
take an active part in American life. Although tradi- 
tionally conservative in political matters, the few indi- 
viduals personally known to the writer are active Social- 
ists. 

French and Swiss. A word must be added concern- 
ing the French and the Swiss. It will be remembered 
that the former outnumbered other nationalities in the 
first enumeration of Haarlem; 2 and ever since there have 
been a few Frenchmen drifting in from over-seas and 
Canada. In 1900, twelve households were noted with 
native-born heads of French parentage, and 19 such for- 
eign-born. In 1905, eighty-eight individuals were re- 
ported. The stock does not increase rapidly. 3 Aside 
from the fact that a French paper has a very restricted 
circulation in the south-western part of Manhattanville, 
one would scarcely know that we have Gallic neighbors 
here. An extended description of French traits is, 
therefore, unnecessary. 4 

Suffice to say, that as a people the French are quick, 
vivacious, impressionable and emotional by nature; logi- 
cal and aesthetic in their way of thinking ; both imitative 
and erratic in their action, showing less inhibition than 
the English or Germans. They are prevailingly instiga- 

1 Cf. J. Brochner, Danish Life, pp. 3-7. 
2 C/. p. 17, supra. 

3 Seven out of 19 families had no children in 1900. 
*The reader may refer to Fouillee, Psychologie du peuple francaise 
and La France au point de vue moral; also Brownell, French Traits. 



255] THE S0CIAL TAMPER j~ 

tive and even original in disposition, convivial in charac- 
ter and " Ideo-Emotional " in type of mind. 1 These 
Celtic qualities we have already met in the Irish. But 
the French have developed them with more polish and 
southern grace. Like all their ethnic confreres, the 
French are intensely social. They possess also the Latin 
quality of objectiveness and breadth, which enables them 
to comprise many interests within the scope of their in- 
tercourse. They are traditionally clever in the manage- 
ment of details, and often show a genius for systematiza- 
tion; so that French economy has a certain elegance and 
symmetry often lacking in Teutonic schemes. The better 
class of women are worthy helpmates in thrift, and add 
much of grace and dignity to the home. 

The Swiss arrived later than the French. In 1900 
there were only 2 native-born parents of this nationality 
recorded, and 56 households with foreign-born heads. 
At that time 132 persons of the second generation were 
registered. In 1905, persons of Swiss birth were not 
separately recorded. We may estimate, however, that 
fully 200 people of Helvetian parentage are to be found 
in Manhattanville. Many of the immigrants came about 
twenty-five years ago, seeking industrial opportunities. 
Numbers of these are still to be found in the silk-mills. 

Although of comparatively pure racial stock, the Swiss 
themselves show considerable variation. 2 Those with 
whom we have to deal are mostly German-speaking arti- 
zans from the northern cities — Zurich and Basel. These 
men are mostly dark and stocky. To the proverbial 
Alpine qualities of steadiness, reflectiveness, industry, 
thrift, love of home and political independence, these 

1 Cf. Giddings, loc. cit. 

2 Cf. Berlepsch, Schzveizerkunde , p. 542, et seq. 



y6 ^ STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [256 

workers add readier imitativeness, wider speculative 
thinking, greater ambition and more radical social tend- 
encies than are characteristic of the average man of the 
mountains. Their tastes however are simple ; their de- 
sires reasonable ; and their conduct, as a rule, exemplary. 
Although some friends of the writer lean toward a de- 
cidedly progressive type of thought on matters of re- 
ligion and politics, they come at it in a quiet and reason- 
able way, and hold it tenaciously, but without aggres- 
siveness. Some time ago a small body of silk-weavers 
attempted to establish a co-operative scheme of produc- 
tion, and struggled manfully until frozen out by the large 
manufacturers. This type of mind may properly be 
called " Intellectual." x 

We have now sketched the characteristics of what may 
be called the naturalized sub-races. That is, these people 
and their immediate descendants constitute about five- 
eighths of the present population of Manhattanville. 
Some of them have been represented here since the be- 
ginnings of the village, and all of them have been in the 
country for one or two generations. These are the 
strains from which our so-called American stock is mainly 
derived. They are the peoples who have added most 
directly to our civilization, and are most readily assimi- 
lated in our social institutions. Their children are na- 
tive, and except for certain home traditions, are as 
American in spirit as most Yankees. We have then, in 
a way, already defined the leading elements in our own 
original stock, and outlined certain features of the re- 
sultant American character. In presenting these national 
types we have attempted, in a rough way, to lay as much 

1 Cf. Giddings, loc. cit. 



257] THE SOCIAL TEMPER yy 

emphasis upon each in elaborating its distinctive traits, 
as the relative weight of its numbers contributes to the 
local population. Whether or not the method has been 
successful, taking these impressions together, we have 
now a sort of composite photograph as the basis for 
delineating the native type. We must next retouch this 
adumbration, so as to bring out certain marked features, 
and then proceed to add whatever further elements re- 
quire description. 

7 he Native White American is perhaps more difficult 
to define than any other national type. This is so, be- 
cause the type itself is composite, and varies with the 
locality. Most people probably have in mind the tra- 
ditional Yankee or native of the Middle West, when 
" The American " is mentioned. Accordingly our repre- 
sentative is portrayed as a tall, gaunt figure, with angu- 
lar, sallow features and sharp grey eyes. He is tradi- 
tionally prompt and persistent in his activities ; serious 
and practical in his thoughts ; with strong revulsions of 
emotion. He is ambitious, ingenious and adaptable ; 
often rather streaky and inconsistent in character ; but 
genuine and generous withal. Though not noted for 
the subtler qualities, the "American" is shrewd in reas- 
oning and firm in his belief. He is above all a money- 
maker and an organizer. Freedom is the breath of his 
nostrils, but opinion forms the atmosphere in which he 
lives. 

Such a cartoon of national characteristics is familiar to 
readers of American critics. 1 The picture presents cer- 
tain features of truth; but the sketch must be modified 
to suit various conditions. The elements recognized in 
such a composition are the enterprising qualities of the 

1 Cf. John Graham Brooks, As Others See Us. 



78 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [258 

Anglo-Saxon enlivened by the blood of the Celt and 
given scope amidst the resources of a new continent. 
The "American" as a fixed type of man is not yet es- 
tablished ; but American modes of life and thought are 
discernible in various communities. Let us try to define 
some of those in Manhattanville. 

First we must note the size of the native population. 
In 1905 there were registered 13,157 native-born persons, 
•of whom 12,210 were white, i. e., about two-thirds of the 
inhabitants. But a comparison of these figures with 
those already given will show that fully two-thirds of 
this number are the descendants of foreign parents. In 
1900, out of 1257 native-born heads of households, 704 
were of foreign parentage ; and 4303 out of 6501 children 
were so registered. Of the remaining 2198 children, 
only 595 had native white grandparents. So that al- 
though approximately 30 per cent of the local popula- 
tion is of native origin, only about 10 per cent is of 
native stock ; the other 20 per cent being composed of 
Irish, German, English, Scotch, Scandinavian, French 
and Swiss descendants, in the proportions already esti- 
mated. How these people came into the neighborhood 
has been told in part. The local currents will be indi- 
cated when we speak of movements of the population. 

We should expect the city man to be less massive and 
more nervous than the rural type. This is probably true 
of New Yorkers as a whole, and is apparently the case 
with our neighbors in Manhattanville. In dealing with 
physical statistics later, we shall have certain evidence to 
present upon this point. Here, however, the generaliza- 
tion may be made with some confidence, as the result of 
observation. The large Celtic element seems to give a 
rather dapper cast, not counteracted by the more ponder- 
ous Teutonic strain. Although not remarkable for rest- 



259] THE S0CIAL TEMPER yg 

lessness as city populations go, even this comparatively 
quiet neighborhood shows marks of urban stimulation. 
Whenever the ambulance or the fire-engine dashes down 
the hill, heads come out of the windows and men step 
from the stores to watch, while boys follow so far as 
reasonable effort promises present participation in the 
"doings.'' The roar of the subway trains as they burst 
from the hill and rumble overhead to plunge again into 
the tunnel, furnishes ample distraction for the residents 
on Broadway. The switching of car lines, the current of 
draying from the docks, the struggles of teams with 
heavy loads on the steep slopes, supply an undertone of 
city traffic to the neighborhood. The writer has noted 
the vibration of tall buildings in the Hollow, under stress 
of passing vehicles, by the rattling of a lamp shade and 
the oscillation of reflected light beams. If brick and 
mortar show the strain, we should expect men's bodies 
to register the pulse of the town. And they do. This 
is the first characteristic of American urban life — a rapid, 
almost irritable nervous action. 

Perhaps this tendency is more marked in the diversions 
of our neighbors, for at such times the mind throws off 
its formal habit and adopts a comfortable negligee. 
Coasting down the hills on roller-skates or improvised 
wagons is great fun for the young children. Base ball 
is easily first among the sports for boys, and skipping 
games for girls. Dancing parties are most popular 
among young people, cards and the theater with their 
elders. There is some playing with dice and gambling 
on the races, especially by younger men. Three pool 
rooms, three bowling alleys, and a school gymnasium 
are within the section. But most of the places of amuse- 
ment are on 125th Street. It is Harlem's center for 
shopping and gay relaxation. There are four theaters 



8o A SI UDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ 2 6o 

on or near this thoroughfare, and ten picture shows 
between Third and Eighth Avenues ; half-a-dozen 
"casinos," "gardens" and "cafes," supplied with music 
and other attractions ; three dancing academies offering 
"public receptions;" several lodge rooms and assembly 
halls, and numerous saloons. True these do not all 
minister to the people of Manhattanville, but they show 
rather plainly certain tendencies in the region of which 
our neighborhood is becoming more vitally a part. The 
features that strike one in walking across town at night 
are, first, the large number of young people on the street; 
and secondly, the cheap quality of the amusements they 
patronize. The vaudeville habit of mind seems to char- 
acterize Harlem's coming generation. " Amateur Night," 
which a local burlesque house offers weekly as a choice 
bit, is perhaps as brutalizing in its effects on spectators 
and performers as any thing that can be imagined. A 
discussion of such matters, however, is scarcely in place 
here. 

Within our section is one theater with a seating capacity 
of 1850 persons. It aims to bring some of the Broad- 
way successes up-town for a week, and thus presents a 
goodjidiversined program. Across the street is an open 
dance hall, with a bar and dining rooms. Some of the 
writer's young friends have dropped significant remarks 
as to the character of festivities there conducted. From 
observation, we should consider it an undesirable resort 
for making acquaintances. It is rather surprising to see 
a number of Hebrew girls about the place. This re- 
minds us of a new element that is pressing toward Man- 
hattanville. 

Strictly within our parish, public amusements are few 
and primitive. For the men, no recreation compares 
with that furnished by the saloon. In June, 1905, there 



2 6i] THE SOCIAL TEMPER gl 

were fifty such places — one for every 370 residents, or 
better, one for every no men. By October, 1908, twelve 
bar rooms had been added, and four had been closed. 
The latter were mostly in improvised Raines' Law hotels. 
Evidently our German-Irish neighborhood has not been 
affected by the temperance wave. The presence of a 
large and growing brewery stimulates the traffic in 
liquor. Our neighbors are accustomed to drinking, and 
are fond of "rushing the can." The location of the 
saloons shows, however, that they are not all sustained 
by local patronage. Their strategic situation along the 
main thoroughfares, about transfer points, and on con- 
spicuous corners in general, displays an admirable un- 
derstanding of human susceptibility. A few places have 
added attractions, such as a hand-ball court, a pool- 
table or a "social room." But aside from the lure of a 
small free lunch, most of them are plain drinking resorts, 
with only such diversion as the customers afford each 
other. Some bars have a special coterie of patrons, 
united by national, professional or social bonds. Thus 
two saloons on Lawrence Street have almost exclusively 
German customers ; two others cater to the negro trade. 
Those on Twelfth Avenue and middle Broadway are 
much patronized by shippers and drivers. But the acme 
of social assimilation is reached by the saloon as a politi- 
cal center. One local leader regularly announces the 
annual winter ball and summer chowder party. His 
saloon seems always to be placarded without and clut- 
tered within by staunch adherents. The assembly halls 
that three places possess, make them natural rallying 
points for political discussion. 

Such instillation of the social spirit not infrequently 
results in disorder. This, i. e., disorder, is technically the 
most common complaint made against our compatriots 



82 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [262 

in the local police court. 1 The patrolmen in this pre- 
cinct, however, give the neigborhood as a whole a good 
record, with the exception that a certain amount of petty 
thieving has been noted. The presence of large receiv- 
ing stations and yards along the river ; the existence of 
many small candy and grocery stores, often run by iras- 
cible old persons or foreigners ; and the arrangement of 
tenements, with roofs and fire-escapes in common, seem 
to offer opportunities for dexterity in " swiping," enjoyed 
by the young American. Fourteen out of seventeen of- 
fenses of larceny, burglary and receiving stolen goods, 
noted last year, were charged to native whites ; and more 
than half of these were under twenty-five years of age. 
A small amount of drunkenness, five cases of assault and 
some violation of city ordinances were scored against 
natives in the period referred to. Evidently our fellow 
countrymen are not violent ; but they appear somewhat 
demonstrative, and are not always careful about the ac- 
quisition of property. The wife of a street-car conduc- 
tor was overheard telling a friend about an acquaintance 
accused of "knocking down" fares. "Five dollars a 
day!" she exclaimed. "What did the man want? I 
always told my husband that a dollar was plenty." We 
do not cite such gossip as typical of our neighbors' 
honesty, but merely mention it as indicative of a native 
tendency to "beat the corporation if you can." 

It must be understood, that in describing the people 
of Manhattanville, we are not dealing with what is ordi- 
narily termed "a slum population." Some of our neigh- 
bors are poor, a few are disorderly, but the majority are 
self-respecting working people. As such they are as 

1 Based upon examination of records for arrests and charges against 
residents of Manhattanville during 19 weeks in 1908. 



263] THE SOCIAL TEMPER 83 

much interested in the local schools and churches as the 
average city population. 

So far as religious influence is concerned, the Catholic 
Church is unquestionably the most important factor. 
The congregations of Annunciation and St. Joseph's, 
their parochial schools and the Convent, comprise almost 
12,000 people. 1 Not all of these are in Manhattan ville, 
however. The bounds of both parishes extend beyond 
the limits of the village; and the Convent has little or 
no connection with the neighborhood, except through 
the schools. 2 We should estimate that fully 5,000 peo- 
ple from our section are members of these churches. 
Within the last three years a new parish has been estab- 
lished on the southern hill, taking in three blocks of our 
territory. Evidently the Roman Church has a numerous 
constituency here. Annunciation has moved to a fine 
new building on Convent Avenue. The parochial sys- 
tem seems to yield the best results among such a mixed 
people. It furnishes a common basis upon which natives, 
Irish, Germans, Italians and even negroes can enter. It 
goes without saying that the great majority of zealous 
Catholics are of Irish parentage. About 500 Germans 
and perhaps 100 Italians complete the membership. It 
must be confessed that the adherence of some of the 
native-born to the mother Church is somewhat a matter 
of formal tradition. That is, many wish to have their 
children confirmed in the Roman faith, and desire the 
last rites of that congregation. But aside from an occa- 
sional mass on high feast days, their participation in 
church work is not very active. 

1 For the data on the Catholic congregations the writer is indebted to 
his friend Mr. W. B. Hogan, who secured them through the courtesy 
of Pastor Huntman and Fr. McCahill. 

'Nuns of the Sacred Heart are a cloistered order. 



84 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [264 

St. Mary's Episcopal Church has fewer communicants 
than her Catholic neighbors. On November 1st, 1908, 
396 persons were numbered, and 406 members of the 
Sunday School. 1 Many of these live beyond the bound- 
aries of this section. The long and honorable history 
of this first congregation in Manhattanville has been 
mainly that of a missionary station. 2 The pastors have 
always been busy christening babies, visiting the sick 
and burying the dead. The church early adopted the 
"free-pew'' system, and has become a " workingman's 
congregation." It is a place of meeting for some natives 
living in this vicinity, for a few British settlers, and for 
the German Protestants who do not regularly attend the 
Lutheran churches in this region. Some of our neigh- 
bors go to the nearby Presbyterian church, and a few to 
other Evangelical congregations in Harlem and further 
down town. But on investigation, we discover a great 
number of unchurched Americans and foreigners hidden 
away in the unstable homes of the tenements. How 
many such there may be, is uncertain — several thousand 
at least. Here is a problem for the social worker who 
believes that our national life is buttressed by the Church 
and the School. 

There are two public primary schools, three parochial 
and one private institution within our bounds. To these 
we might add Manhattan College and the Convent of 
the Sacred Heart ; but these have little direct connection 
with the neighborhood. The first five schools accom- 
modate about 7000 young people, of whom perhaps 5000 
live within our section. 3 The character of the instruc- 

1 Parish report by Rev. Mr. Hulse. 2 Cf. supra, pp. 23-4. 

3 The School Census of 1906 gave 4,641 children between five and 
eighteen years of age for these blocks. 



THE SOCIAL TEMPER 



85 



tion given cannot here be analyzed, save in so far as 
this appears to react upon the disposition of the child, 
and thus hastens or retards social assimilation. The 
type of education furnished by our city schools is too 
well known to require more than hasty characterization. 
In dealing with such large numbers (often sixty in a 
grade), progress can be judged only by results. Ac- 
cordingly the child is urged to comply with tests in a 
somewhat mechanical way. Since distinction can be won 
only by strenuous competition, a rather narrow idea of 
personal success is encouraged. Furthermore, discipline 
appears to have a certain autocratic and repressive qual- 
ity, which does not always lead to rational self-control. 
The writer has found public school boys very submissive 
in the presence of authority, but decidedly unsteady 
when left alone. Perhaps we can discover in these qual- 
ities developed in school, the origin of certain American 
tendencies to superficiality, intense individualism and 
spasmodic public virtue. 

The parochial schools lay more emphasis upon formal 
discipline and routine work. A Brother related with 
pride, that his boys were considered the best penmen 
and spellers that apply at a certain office. The writer 
was somewhat nonplussed on visiting a girls' school, to 
behold sixty little maids arise and courtsey as one per- 
son, and then proceed to recite in unison an elecutionary 
selection interpreted with identical gestures and inflec- 
tions. If the Catholic schools teach fewer subjects, they 
generally drill more thoroughly in the "Three R's." 
There is a tendency, however, for children to leave the 
parochial schools when they have made their first com- 
munion, and enter the public grades, where they can 
obtain manual training and more cultural subjects. 

Speyer School has had a distinct mission in the neigh- 



86 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ 2 66 

borhood. Besides serving as a practice station for Teach- 
ers' College, it was intended to show how the school 
could be of service to the community. Accordingly, in 
addition to the regular grades, night classes, lectures, 
social clubs and indoor games have been promoted. 
The effort in the grades has been to develop the ability 
of the children to think for themselves. The purpose of 
the extension work is to keep in touch with the gradu- 
ates and the older people of the neighborhood, by fur- 
nishing them a place for wholesome recreation and by 
stimulating general social development in the section. 
The school in this way, and through a body of resident 
workers, has acted as a settlement center. A splendid 
illustration of the results of such getting together was a 
recent meeting under the auspices of the school, for pro- 
moting public interest in securing a day nursery for the 
neighborhood. It is such co-operation that is needed to 
make our growing cities more than a series of numbered 
streets with merely houses and stores. 

Undoubtedly, the greatest agency for moulding public 
opinion among us is the daily press. Not merely the 
presentation of facts, but what facts are presented, de- 
pends upon the type of paper a man reads. As a result 
of some conversation with the local newsdealers, the 
writer concludes that no other papers compare in volume 
of circulation among our neighbors with the (morning) 
World and the (evening) Journal. The former is the 
clerk's choice to scan on his way to the office ; the latter 
is the sheet the workingman picks to read at home after 
supper. As a rough test of the general character of 
these organs of public opinion, the columns of an issue 
of each for a day in January last (chosen at random), 
were measured and classified. The result of this foot- 
rule analysis is as follows : 



267] THE SOCIAL TEMPER g 7 

Advertisements 49% 46% 

Cartoons and Pictures 11% 16% 

Headlines (over 1 in., sing, col.) 9% 7% 

Crime and Police Notes 6% 7% 

Magazine (Fiction, Humor, Domestic, etc.). 5% 8% 

Sporting and Theatrical 6% 5% 

Personal and Social Gossip 6% 2% 

Death and Disaster 4% 2% 

Public Affairs 2% 3% 

Social Progress (Science, Labor, etc.) 1 col. 1 3% 

Editorial and General Comment 1 col. iX m - 2 % 

Finance 1 col. \% in. 6% in. 

Comment upon the level of social intelligence herein re- 
vealed is perhaps unnecessary. 

Another indication of intellectual tastes is furnished by 
the registration of books read in the Speyer School 
Library. The Librarian states that attractive binding 
and illustration have much to do with the choice. So 
far as subjects are selected, detective stories, romances 
and nature tales prevail. Among authors, Conan Doyle, 
Mark Twain, and G. B. McCutcheon lead. Books that 
have been dramatized are much in demand, and stories 
of pathos are relished. Not long since a young woman 
requested "a nice, sad story." 

On looking through the City Record Office to dis- 
cover data upon our neighborhood, the writer was as- 
sisted by an obliging clerk, who remarked that the politi- 
cal affiliation of voters might indicate something in 
regard to their social status. "For," he added with an 
engaging wink, " You know the swells are Republicans, 
but the common people are Democrats." Without test- 
ing the validity of the suggestion, a summary of the last 
registration for the 21st, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th and 32nd 
election districts of the 19th Assembly District (which 

1 1 column = 19 in. 



88 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ 2 68 

include the main part of our neighborhood), shows the 
following proportions: Democrats, 143 1 ; Republicans, 
673; Independence League, 124; Socialists, 64 ; Prohibi- 
tion, 5 ; Not Designated, 218. An astute political psy- 
chologist might draw certain conclusions from this aline- 
ment of native and naturalized forces, as to the propor- 
tions of convivial, austere and radical natures to be found 
in the local population. But let us return to " the native 
white American." 

It may appear that in this excursus on the social life 
of Manhattanville, we have lost sight of the factor to be 
defined. But it is only by such a conspectus of forma- 
tive influences and resulting organizations, that we can 
understand the type of mind at work and the social 
medium in which it is engaged. Accordingly, from this 
rough plotting of institutions we may rapidly character- 
ize the sort of individual involved. Our k< American" is 
prompt and nervous in action ; restless and imitative in 
movement; 1 subject to shallow waves of emotion; 2 per- 
haps sanguine in temperament. 3 His mind is a strange 
mixture of wide credulity and skepticism in details ; his 
beliefs are suggested largely by his environment or his 
present needs ; his reasoning is rapid and uncertain. 4 He 

*An interesting example of unconscious imitation is the manner in 
which German errors of speech have crept into the vernacular. The 
Irish-American child will tell you that he got something off a boy that 
lives by (i. e., in the same house with) him. We have heard also of 
men "sleeping in their job," i. e., where they work. 

2 Changes of fashions and of friends are rather rapid, and prove dis- 
concerting in dealing with the younger generation. 

3 Cf. Giddings, op. cit., pp. 75, et seq. 

4 Numerous examples of mixed social values might be cited from tene- 
ment life in our neighborhood. Perhaps the remark of a thrifty jani- 
tress to a slatternly tenant may illustrate the point. In telling how the 
latter would not use the cheap conveniences of the recently renovated 



269] THE SOCIAL TEMPER 89 

is ambitious and instigative, adaptable and convivial. In 
brief, the local native is prevailingly of the " Ideo- 
Emotional" type of mind. 

Negroes. There is another native race, neither in- 
digenous nor exploiting. In 1905 the negroes numbered 
983, practically all of whom were of American-born 
parentage. Five years before, 166 households with 614 
members were noted. At the present time there are 
probably about 1300 negroes in Manhattanville. The 
race does not multiply rapidly, 1 but the increase comes 
from moving families into blocks of tenements secured 
for that purpose. Seven groups and several detached 
houses in various parts of our neighborhood have been 
obtained in this way. There is a strong tendency to 
segregation, and the negro sections are. clearly defined. 
These settlements vary considerably in character, so that 
what is said of one will not always apply to the others. 

The race traits of the American negro are fairly famil- 
iar. 2 They are as a whole, slow and intermittent in their 
activities, impulsive and imitative in reaction. Their 
lives are steeped in emotion, which colors all their intel- 
lectual processes. Consequently an ordinary negro's 
judgment is apt to be less clear and objective than a 

flat, the good woman said, "At last I had to tell her, as one lady to 
another, 'You are too dirty to live in this house.' 1 Another case in 
point may be mentioned with regard to political views. A young voter 
recently told the writer that he thought "Every man owes it to his 
country to stand by his friends." Evidently this remark was a quota- 
tion, to which was added the original comment: "Them's the kind of 
men that does things square." 

'The average was 1.2 children per married couple in 1900. 

3 For studies of general characteristics, see Hoffman, Race Traits of 
the American Negro; Thomas, The American Negro; Du Bois, The 
Souls of Black Folks. 



90 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ 2 yo 

white man's. The African is proverbially credulous and 
easy-going. He has strong appetites and rather poor 
control of them. He must attain his purpose by direct 
onset or patient waiting. His industry is somewhat in- 
termittent and his habits not over-orderly. Such a 
temperament and character might be classed as a primi- 
tive variety of the sanguine and convivial natures. 1 The 
type of mind is of a rather low " Ideo-Emotional " sort. 
Let us now see what a brief survey of our colored neigh- 
bors will do toward altering this traditional picture. 

The negroes on 130th and 131st Streets are at the 
bottom in this community. They live in old brick tene- 
ments, which thus earn a good rent until business de- 
velopment determines a more profitable type of building. 
These people appear to be of purer blood than those 
farther east. Their housekeeping is of a rather primitive 
sort. This is a poor workingman's section for the most 
part. The heads of the families are mostly laborers, 
drivers and servants. Some of the women also do day's 
work and keep boarders. A few seem to be without 
permanently visible means of support. Because of a 
certain amount of drunkenness and disorder, together 
with a propensity to get into quarrels with their white 
neighbors, the group on 130th Street has driven out the 
other people that formerly lived in " Mixed Ale Row," 
and now fills the block with its own roustabouts. 

The group on the south side of Lawrence and 126th 
Streets is one step higher. It has its own saloon, 
restaurant and pool room. There are more servants and 
persons engaged in commercial lines in this section. 
Formerly a few professional people (clergyman and 
teachers) lived in this settlement, but now they have 

1 Cf. Giddings, loc. cit. 



2 yi] THE SOCIAL TEMPER gi 

moved to better quarters. A group of men may be seen 
almost any time in front of the saloon. The irregular 
nature of their employment may account for the leisure 
of some, who are draymen, waiters, barbers, etc. There 
are reasons for believing, however, that others are, at 
least partly, supported by the labor of women. A num- 
ber of cases of men and women living together without 
formal marriage were noted some time ago. The more 
prosperous colored people who live on the north side of 
126th Street, do not give their humbler brethren a 
flattering reputation for orderliness. A janitor in the 
former houses advised the writer not to locate a black 
boy across the street. We know there has been some 
gambling in connection with the pool room. The two 
more serious offenses marked among black men, were 
charged to residents of this section. 1 

The other groups, especially the two newer blocks on 
126th Street, have an excellent reputation. The neigh- 
bors say the tenements are quiet and orderly. The 
worst fault that can be found with these houses is that 
some are apt to be cluttered in their arrangement and 
lax in their economy. One woman was requested on 
appeals from the neighbors, to remove part of her furni- 
ture, which threatened to overwhelm the floor on which 
she lived. But in contrast with this case is the scrupu- 
lous neatness and attractive brightness of other homes. 
There are some really admirable people hidden away in 
these obscure dwellings — patient, unobtrusive natures, 
that bear the handicap of racial traditions with dignity 
and sweetness. A few are concerned for the welfare of 
their people, and try to improve the standards of life 

1 Rape and indecent exposure, noted in the court records already re- 
ferred to. It is only fair to add, that the disposition of these cases in 
the higher court to which they were referred, was not traced. 



92 • A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [272 

among them. This effort usually takes the form of re- 
ligious activity. 1 The burden of prejudice, however, 
weighs more or less heavily upon all black men. The 
progressive negroes try to guard themselves by with- 
drawing from association with the disorderly element. 
Yet they are not recognized socially by the white people; 
they are practically reduced to menial occupations ; and 
unless protected by numbers, are apt to be made the 
objects of insult. Colored girls of the better sort sel- 
dom venture out at night unless carefully chaperoned. 
Their weaker sisters are not seldom the recipients of 
white men's attentions. This embarrassment of a gen- 
eral classification that includes all kinds and conditions 
of colored people, is the most serious difficulty the negro 
and mulatto have to face. When blacks and whites live 
on a basis of relative equality in our cities, it is gener- 
ally on a pretty low level, where the bad elements of 
each tend to corrupt the frailties of the other. 

Italians. The races already described are in a sense 
native in America. That is, these peoples are germane 
to our own stock, or have been among us so long, that 
their peculiarities no longer strike us as essentially for- 
eign. With the Latins and East Europeans, however, 
the new varieties still appear strange to us. An illustra- 
tion of this tendency to regard the late comers as alien 
was furnished by an Irish boss in the local yard of the 
Street Cleaning Department. Two Italians applied for 
work, and were turned away with the scornful remark, 
"No! We have only work for Amerikun citizuns." 
This in the richest Hibernian brogue ! 

1 A colored mission, formerly conducted in our neighborhood, has 
been discontinued from lack of support and because of unpleasant inter- 
ruptions. 



273] THE SOCIAL TEMPER g^ 

The Italians have been coming to us in numbers only 
within the last twenty-five years. The second genera- 
tion is just beginning to appear in public life. In 1900 
there were 54 households of Italians, with about 200 
persons, in Manhattanville. Five years later there were 
273 such foreign-born persons. Since that time the 
number has somewhat increased, so that now there are 
approximately 550 people of Italian parentage in this 
neighborhood. They have settled mostly about the tri- 
angle formed bythe intersection of Amsterdam Avenue, 
125th and Manhattan Streets. Smaller groups are lo- 
cated on Old Broadway and upper Amsterdam Avenue. 
These people are practically all from Southern Italy, al- 
though a handful of taller, light Northerners is found on 
the southern boundaries of our neighborhood. 

The Neapolitan and Calabrian types are fairly familiar 
to most social workers. 1 They are a short, dark people, 
with quick, sympathetic reactions. Their emotions are 
strong and readily aroused. The most frequent charge 
against them is violence in quarrels; 2 although, as a rule, 
they are sunny and peaceful in temper. The Italian is 
perhaps over-sensitive and credulous. His imagination 
is lively and plastic, as shown by the striking use of color 
and arrangement in clothing and merchandise. Our 
neighbors are not well schooled, but show remarkable 
aptitude for conducting business successfully. They are 
thrifty and frugal, collecting and using much material that 
other people waste. As a whole, the Italians may be 
characterized as ''convivial," and their type of mind de- 

1 For a general analysis, see The Italian in America, by Lord, Trenor 
and Barrows. 

2 Two cases of assault and one of disorder noted on the court records 
referred to, were all discharged. 



94 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [274 

scribed as one marked by a rather simple emotional- 
idealism. * 

The men are mostly laborers, shoemakers, barbers and 
small merchants. Within our section or bordering upon 
it, are half a dozen fruit stands owned by Italians. They 
begin with a push-cart ; obtain the privilege of a stand ; 
gain a concession to sell garden produce in connection 
with a grocery store ; and finally stock a shop of their 
own with attractively arranged provisions. This evolu- 
tion of industry may be seen within a few blocks on 
Amsterdam Avenue. Another profitable line of trade is 
the retail coal and ice business. A young man will rent 
an unused basement ; build a rough bin and a bunk in 
the rear ; and peddle small quantities of his stores to 
improvident tenement dwellers, at a reasonably high rate 
of profit. The Italians save consistently, and are able to 
amass considerable property. 

The homes are at first rather poorly kept, and are dis- 
turbed by the presence of boarders. But the Italian 
soon adjusts himself to city ways, and becomes ambitious 
of social advancement. He is fond of music and social 
pleasures, but he usually keeps his appetites well in hand. 
Not a single arrest for drunkenness was reported of the 
Latins in our section on the police records already re- 
ferred to. The Italian women are uniformly continent, 
for the "unwritten law" is sternly enforced upon both 
offenders among these southern people. 

Socially the Italians appear provincial, because they 
group together with their fellow countrymen for mutual 
protection in a strange environment. They often do not 
master English, and read comparatively little. Two 
Italian newspapers have a small circulation in this sec- 

1 Cf. Giddings, loc. cit. 



275] THE S0CIAL TEMPER g$ 

tion ; but the dealers say their sales are small and fluctu- 
ating. This linguistic bar is somewhat overcome by the 
children, who are bright and quick in acquiring Ameri- 
can ways. The Catholic Church forms another link with 
our local economy. A number of Italians belong to 
both Roman parishes in our neighborhood ; others go to 
the Church in the East Side settlement. In a civic way, 
the men are reported as rather slow at naturalization. 
In 1905 there were 15 in the 1019 voters noted. Though 
this is equal to the proportion of the Italian element in 
the total population at that time, it is low because of the 
considerable number of young unmarried men who have 
not yet decided to settle here. 

The Jews. We now come to speak of a people who 
are rapidly growing at home in New York. They have 
become such an essential part in the city economy, that 
they appear rather as a peculiar commercial factor, than 
as a foreign element. The presence of the Jews was 
scarcely noticed until the great numbers of Russian and 
Polish Hebrews began to pour in upon us some twenty 
years ago. Since the late uprisings in Russia, the in- 
coming tide has augmented ; so that New York at 
present is probably the largest Jewish center the world 
has ever seen. 1 It is difficult to estimate the exact num- 
ber of Hebrews, because they were not until recently 
distinguished on entry from other people of the same 
native country. As stated, the great majority (probably 
98 per cent) of Russian immigrants are Jewish ; but so 
also are large numbers of Germans, Austrians and per- 
sons coming from the northeastern Balkans. We may 

1 Estimates of the Hebrew population of Greater New York vary from 
500,000 to 750,000. 



96 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [276 

safely conclude that all of the former in our neighbor- 
hood are Hebrews, and about three-fifths of those from 
other Slavic states. 

These people began to drift into Manhattanville in the 
nineties, first as peddlers, then as small shopkeepers. By 
1900 there were 37 Russian and Polish families, compris- 
ing about 150 members. In 1905 there were 204 per- 
sons of Russian and Polish birth, which must have meant 
a population of some 500 with such parentage. Within 
the last four years the numbers have grown still more 
rapidly, so that 900 is a conservative estimate of the 
present Hebrew population in our neighborhood. These 
people, first with an eye to busines, settled along Man- 
hattan and 125th Streets and upper Amsterdam Avenue. 
They opened little shops, and lived in the rear of the 
store. With the building of new apartment houses on 
both hills, a more prosperous type of Jewish business 
man has come in. This element has now become so 
considerable that the kosher signs are beginning to 
appear up toward City College. The establishment of 
the Jewish Seminary on 123d Street furnished another 
educational center for Hebrews in this section. 

Our Jewish neighbors are practically all Ashkenastm, 
or members of the northern branch of the Dispersion. 
They differ considerably from the Spanish type, showing 
certain near-Slavic traits. The representative Russian 
or Polish Hebrew is short, dark and slender. 1 The dis- 
tinctive cast of countenance is marked by square cheek- 
bones, full lips and heavy-lidded eyes. The Jew is sensi- 
tive and nervous, but not impulsive. He conceals his 
emotions under an assumed appearance of indifference; 

1 For a general account of Jewish characteristics, see Leroy-Beaulieu, 
Israel Among the Nations; for life on the Lower East Side, Norman 
Hapgood, The Spirit of the Ghetto. 



277] THE S0CIAL TEMPER gy 

his native curiosity, with an air of polite interest. He 
is apt to meet one with a somewhat deferential manner 
until assured of his position, when he occasionally dis- 
displays an unsuspected amount of aggressiveness. He 
has great facility in accommodating himself to circum- 
stances; but his persistent purpose, like a well-tempered 
spring, only awaits opportunity to express its motive. 

All authorities agree that the Jew runs to brains. 
Our neighbors are not marked for philosophical subtlety 
so much as for economic shrewdness. Still they are 
fond of reading and discussion. Very few Hebrew 
papers circulate in our neighborhood, however, since 
most of the people have mastered English. 1 It is an in- 
teresting fact to note, that they have obtained most of 
the news stands in connection with the little candy and 
cigar stores in our section. The larger business men 
have acquired real estate for speculation. The Jews are 
proverbially close buyers and careful spenders, a frugal 
and provident people. They are traditionally temperate 
and continent. The second generation is not so quiet 
and orderly as the immigrants, however. The young 
men and women are soon fired with commercial and 
social ambition, which sometimes leads them to excesses 
of speculation and frivolity. There is occasionally a 
" Frechheit " and boorishness noticeable in these young 
people, not remarked in their parents. This is in some 
cases due to precocious academic or business success ; in 
others it may be attributed to mere lack of social 
training. 

Austro-Hungarians . There are some Austrian Slavs 
and Magyars in our neighborhood. The former are 

Yiddish is spoken in many households. 



98 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [278 

mostly Bohemians, together with a few Poles. These 
people began to arrive in Manhattanville about twenty- 
five years ago. In 1900 just 24 Austro-Hungarian house- 
holds were noted, comprising some 75 persons. Five 
years later, 174 Austro-Hungarians were registered. As 
before explained, this is a mixed classification, including 
Hebrews, Teutons, Slavs and Huns. But we are con- 
vinced from personal observation, that a considerable 
Slavic element has filtered through the section. So far 
as it has settled at all, 127th Street and Old Broadway 
may be said to be the centers. Smaller groups are also 
to be found along 125th and Manhattan Streets. 

The Slavic type is less conspicuous than most others 
in our community; and unless investigation discovered 
it, might pass undetected. 1 The ethnic traits vary con- 
siderably with the nativity. Our Bohemian friends do 
not differ greatly in appearance from the South Ger- 
mans. There is perhaps less repose of manner, a more 
melancholy temperament, greater vividness of imagina- 
tion and a more volatile disposition. The better edu- 
cated Slavs are affable, industrious and clever. But the 
majority are less practical and persistent than the aver- 
age Anglo-Saxon. In these respects we are reminded 
of certain Celtic traits that appear in the Slavic nature. 

The men are engaged mostly in trade and manufac- 
turing; to a less degree, in construction, labor and 
service. Some of the Huns used to be employed in the 
color works and the iron-foundry. Since these have 
moved away, this element is no longer obvious in the 
local population. So far as the writer has visited the 

1 For a general analysis of Slavic characteristics, see Hellwald, Die 
Welt der Slawen; and Fouillee, Psychologie des peuples europe'ens, 
pp. 409, et seq.; also Skikorsky, "La psychologie des Slaves," Rev. 
Philos., v. 45, p. 625, et seq. 



279] THE S0CIAL TEMPER gg 

Slavic homes, overcrowding and lack of feminine care 
seem to be the principal defects. But this observation 
is based upon so few instances in our locality, that it is 
a generalization of slight value. 

Other Nationalities. There are a handful of Greeks 
and Chinese in Manhattanville, some West Indians and 
rare representatives of the Levant. But they are so few 
as to make little impression on neighborhood life. We 
may say in brief, that the Greeks tend to follow the 
social economy of the Italians. The Chinese are all 
solitary laundrymen. 

Conclusions. We have now indicated the factors in 
the local population that determine its social temper. 
It yet remains to summarize these elements briefly, and 
to suggest how they co-operate. It may be assumed 
without much risk of error, that the predominent type 
of mind represented in the community is " Ideo-Emo- 
tional," with variations toward motor and intellectual 
modifications. 1 The "Dogmatic" sort is but sparsely 
represented by a few British and older Jewish families. 
We may say then, that the emotional variety may be 
estimated as 70 per cent of the whole number, 10 per 
cent as motor in tendency, and 15 per cent as thought- 
ful in reaction. The remaining 5 per cent tend toward 
a dogmatic attitude. 

As to sympathy and consciousness of kind, we may 
refer to foregoing statements concerning grouping 
among certain nationalities. Upon the basis of nativity 
and race (Cf. Table XII, p. 51), following Professor 

1 Cf. Giddings, op. cit., appendix i. 



IO o A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ 2 8o 

Giddings' suggestion, 1 we obtain 91.24 per cent as the 
index number for sympathy in this neighborhood. Evi- 
dently the range of fellow-feeling in such a mixed city 
population is low, as shown by this statistical method. 

In regard to the degree of co-operation found among 
these people, an incident from the writer's experience 
may illustrate this point. A plan was formulated where- 
by the members of a certain organization in Manhattan- 
ville might obtain a cash discount upon all purchases 
above a given sum, upon presenting their membership 
card to the dealer designated after inspection, as reliable 
for that line of purchases. The merchants were eager 
to secure trade in this way ; the members were enthusi- 
astic over the prospect of reductions ; and the organiza- 
tion flattered itself that an enlarged enrollment and a 
more interested group of consumers would result. The 
plan started well. Soon, however, the merchants com- 
plained that few persons presented the cards, so that 
they could not afford to give the reduction to the small 
number who did. When the members were questioned, 
some admitted that they did not like to appear as if beg- 
ging favors. Others could not resist attractive premiums 
offered in lieu of a cash rebate. Thus one woman was 
entitled to 10 per cent off on a weekly baker's account 

1 The formula is: 

Per cent native-born of % nat. b. nat. w. par. 

Index Number = native white parents. + + % nat. b. for, w. par. 

1 2 

% nat. b. nat. w. par. % nat. b. nat. w. par. 

-j- % nat. b. for. w. par. + % nat. b. for. w. par. 



4- % for. b. whites. + % for. b. whites. 

+ all colored. 
4 ~8~ 

Cf. Giddings, op. cit., appendix ii. 



+ + 



2 8i] THE SOCIAL TEMPER 1Q1 

of two dollars. The dealer told his customer that she 
could have either a receipted bill for $1.80, or a fifteen- 
cent cake thrown in for the full amount. Without a 
moment's hesitation, the good housewife took the cake. 
The alluring advertisements of premium stamps by rival 
dealers broke up this attempt at a consumers' union 
within a short time. 

The outcome of this actual experiment in co-operation 
may indicate somewhat the frame of mind and steadiness 
of purpose that can be expected in such a neighborhood. 
The desire for personal advantage and the dislike of ap- 
pearing queer, are rather marked. The same spirit ap- 
plies to trade unions, so that those that are powerful and 
popular obtain allegiance. A workman will frequently 
dismiss the claims of a weaker organization with the sig- 
nificant remark, "What's the use? I can get along just 
as well without it." 



CHAPTER IV 
Economic Conditions 

The most fundamental social activity of any group is 
the economic occupation of its members. On the one 
hand these occupations indicate inherent and acquired 
characteristics of the people, which lead them to adopt 
certain lines of work. That is, the vocations express 
essential qualities of mind and body that induce their 
possessors to follow specific callings. On the other 
hand this employment reveals the social needs that 
afford business opportunities and professional openings. 
The tendencies of trade and industry, the requirements 
of public office and personal service, present the field of 
usefulness for the workers. These two factors of per- 
sonal ability and social demand so interact through busi- 
ness organization as to establish well-defined types of 
employment. The occupation in turn fixes its mark 
upon the individual by developing a certain set of habits 
and tendencies. As a result appear the characteristic 
reactions and points of view of the craftsman, the busi- 
ness man and the professional man. 

Equally decisive is the grade of employment. This 
not only determines in general the degree of independ- 
ence and leisure of the worker ; but in particular, it es- 
tablishes his level of remuneration. Now while it is true 
that rate of wages or income does not entirely determine 
the standard of living, it is true that income supplies the 
economic basis for commanding the necessities and lux- 

102 [282 



283] 



ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 



103 



uries of life. So that the enjoyment of home comfort, 
education, recreation and many sorts of social oppor- 
tunity do depend upon the type and grade of occupation. 
Bearing these general principles in mind, let us now 
proceed to analyze the business interests and industrial 
pursuits of the population of Manhattanville. 

According to the Federal returns for 1900, 4878 per- 
sons were registered as engaged in gainful occupations ; 
7914 were entered as unemployed; and for 1883 no 
record of regular business was given. Referring to Table 
VI (page 38), we find the distribution of these persons 
among the members of the household as follows : 

Table XIII 

EMPLOYMENT 





Employed 


Unemployed 


Not 
Designated 

327 
50 

1,002 
168 
336 


Total 


Heads of Households . . . 
Children and Relatives.. 
Servants 


2,894 

1,917 

67 




7,914 


3,221 
9,881 

67 
1,002 


Boarders 


Institutions 


168 


Others 


336 




Totals 


4,878 


7,914 


1,883 


14,675 





On the basis of the first two items, for which we have 
specific data, we may arrive at a ratio of employment for 
the population as a whole. We find that 37 per cent of 
the members in these families were employed, and 60 
per cent were not. As to the remaining 3 per cent not 
designated, we discover that 269 of the heads of house- 
holds were women, of whom 47 had boarders or lodgers. 1 



See Table XVI, p. 112. 



I0 4 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [284 

In regard to the other classes, it is clear that their per- 
sonnel is not distributed as in the families. A majority 
of the boarders (perhaps two-thirds) were young wage- 
earners, especially men employed in the transportation 
interests centering in the neighborhood. 1 As to those 
connected with institutions, we know that more than 
thirty persons were identified with the local orphanage, 
hospital and college, as members of the staff or em- 
ployees — servants, nurses, teachers, etc. 2 For " Others," 
we can only estimate that perhaps half the number had 
to earn a living. 3 Consequently we may say, that be- 
tween 40 per cent and 45 per cent of the population were 
engaged in gainful occupations. 

But what kinds of work do these people do? The 
Federal returns give more than two hundred different 
occupations for 2894 heads of households. Their classi- 
fication according to trade, business or profession is 
presented in the table on pages 105-106. 

In this table an attempt has been made to arrange the 
occupations according to a progressive series in the 
process of production, distribution and social control. 
Under each main division the specialized lines of work 
are presented by industry (according to material, pro- 
cess or product) or by type of service. For each of 
these in turn, the particular trades or pursuits most im- 
portant in such lines are indicated. The classification 
follows in general the scheme of the Federal census. 
Only one or two points require explanation. 

By "Transforming Industries" is meant those funda- 
mental operations that alter the form of raw material, so 

1 Cf. Tables XIV, XVII, XVIII, and remarks on Plate A. 
8 The Federal returns give 9 + in these instances. 
3 These "Others" are persons of various sorts not accounted for in 
the foregoing partial items that make up the total. 



285] 



ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 
Table XIV 



I05 



EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY OR CALLING. HEADS OF HOUSEHOLDS. 
FEDERAL RETURNS, I9OO 

Common Laborers undifferentiated 333 

Personal Service 318 

Managers 61 saloon keepers, 29; boarding- 
house, 13; caterers, 9, etc. 
nurses, 13; masseurs, 2, etc. 
coachmen, 9; servants, 33, etc. 
janitors, 49. 

barbers, 32; laundry, 44; waiters, 
34, etc. 

Agriculture, 18; Quarry, 4 22 

162 

brewers and bottlers, 34; iron 
workers, 21; stationery, eng., 
76, etc. 

Construction 430 

Building 333 contractors, 13; carpenters, 116; 

masons, 56; plumbers, 49. 

Decorating 97 painters and glaziers, 92. 

Manufactures 427 

Management 20 manufacturers, 9; foremen, 7. 

Clothing 55 dressmakers, 28; tailors, 24. 

Feed 38 bakers, 31. 



Attendants . . 19 

Domestic 45 

House 56 

General 137 

Extractive Industries • • 
Transforming Industries 



Furniture 23 

Leather 33 

Metal 83 



pianos, 7; upholstery, 10. 

shoes, 26. 

blacksmiths, 32; machinist, 23. 



coopers, 5; machine hands, 11. 
color, 5; cigars, 9, etc. 



Paper and Books 38 compositors and printers, 22. 

Textiles 95 silk-weavers, warpers, finishers, 

etc., 92. 

Wagons 9 

Wood-working 16 

Various 17 

Transportation 

Foremen (gen.) 3 

Communication 9 linemen, 3; telegraphers, 4. 

Draught 278 livery, 7; draymen, 219; hostlers, 

47- 

Lighters 17 longshoremen, stevedores, etc. 

Navigation 9 captain, deckhands, dredger, 

pilot, etc. 



477 



io 6 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ 2 86 

Railway 55 conductors, 11; engineers and 

firemen, 15; flagmen, etc., 10. 

Tramways 106 conductors, 35; motormen, 54. 

Trade and Commerce 507 

Factors 54 agents, 36; brokers, 7; supt. and 

managers, 10. 

Retailers 160 grocers, 25; huxters, 17, etc. 

Clerks 144 book-keepers, 65; cashiers, 43. 

Salesmen 120 

Shippers 29 porters, 19, etc. 

Government Employ 139 

Federal 20 letter-carriers, 10; P. O. clerks, 8. 

Municipal 119 inspectors, 8; fire, 11; police, 95; 

streets, 5. 

Professions 74 

"Artistic" 37 Art, 9 — artists, 4; architects, 3; 

designers, 2. 
Letters, 14 — journalism, 4; lit- 
erary, 3. 
Musicians, 7. 

Theatrical, 14 — actors, 12; the- 
atrical managers, 2. 

"Learned" 15 Clergy, 5; Lawyers, 4; Doctors, 6. 

"Practical" 22 chemist, 1; dentist, 1; engineers, 

6; teachers, 14. 
Landlords 5 

Total 2,894 



that it can be employed in further processes of produc- 
tion. These operations are generally of a massive char- 
acter, involving an essential physical or chemical change 
in the shape, consistency or potential of the original 
substance. They imply an alteration by elemental me- 
chanical or chemical process rather than the skilful 
manipulation and combination of parts. Such are smelt- 
ing, refining and iron-working, stone-cutting (" rough- 
ing-out") and brick-making, the sawing of timber, the 
milling of grain, pulp-making, spinning, bleaching and 



287] ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 1Q j 

dyeing, brewing and distilling, the tanning and finishing 
of hides, and the generation of heat, power and light. 
It will be seen that the requisites essential in such lines 
are knowledge of materials and attentive watching of 
the process, strength and decision rather than manual 
dexterity. The industries themselves seem to be inter- 
mediate between extraction and manufacture, somewhat 
as transportation stands between manufacturing and the 
marketing of the finished product, 

Under " Service" several types have been emphasized. 
For instance, the occupation of " Managers " more nearly 
resembles that of persons in charge of a mercantile es- 
tablishment than that of "menials;" although it has to 
do with the immediate satisfaction of bodily needs. 
Again, "Domestic" and "House" servants are differ- 
entiated by the limitation of their responsibility to the 
execution of individual orders or to the running of the 
plant. Under "General" service is included a class of 
occupations that involve personal attendance, but which 
are at the same time offices extended to a group of pa- 
trons or to the public in general. This last distinction 
will be further developed in speaking of grades of em- 
ployment in what follows. The other divisions are self- 
explanatory. Let us now consider the relative numbers 
of persons in the various lines of work. 

It must be remembered, however, that we are here 
dealing with the heads of households, z, e., with the men 
and women (exclusive of spouses) classified in Table XI 
(page 48), practically all of whom were over twenty-one 
years of age. 1 Consequently, we have exact information 
for only about half the workers. This fact will doubt- 
less modify our conclusions as to the relative numbers 

1 Plate A. 



io8 



A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE 



[288 



engaged in manufactures and trade, since younger and 
unattached persons show a tendency to enter these lines. 1 
Nevertheless, we may indicate the industrial trend of the 
longer established population upon this basis. 

On looking over the list, one is struck by the large 
numbers employed in unskilled labor, in the building 
trades and in transportation. Those engaged in the 
professions, in commercial lines and in manufactures are 
relatively few for a business and industrial center such 
as New York. Comparing the percentage of persons in 
all gainful occupations who are employed in these lines, 
with that for the Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx at 
the same date, 2 we have the following significant con- 
trast : 



Manhattanville . 

Manhattan and 
Bronx.-... • ■ 



Labor 


Construc- 
tion 


Trans- 
port 


Manufac- 
ture 


Trade 


ii.S% 
6.4% 


14.8% 

5-9% 


16.4% 

5-6% 


15.5% 

29.7% 


17.5% 
26.2% 



Profes- 
sions 



2.6% 

5.8% 



Manhattanville is also well represented in regard to 
city employees, small shop-keepers and in certain lines 
of personal service. The considerable numbers engaged 
in draying, silk-weaving and brewing, reflect somewhat 
the attraction of local industries. The builders and 
stationary engineers, however, seem to be the natural 
exponents of characteristic traits in the people. 

The following table is an attempt to arrange these 
persons according to the type or grade of their occupa- 



1 See Table XVIII, p. 116. 

2 See U. S. Census, Report on Occupations, 1901, pp. 457> 459- 



289] ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IO g 

tion, without reference to the particular branch of in- 
dustry in which they may have been engaged : 

Table XV 

OCCUPATIONS ACCORDING TO TYPE OR GRADE. HEADS OF HOUSEHOLDS, 

1900 

Laborers 380 

Servants 861 

Private 126 domestic, 51; house, 56; personal, 19. 

Public 735 corporation (transport), 130; gen- 
eral, 488; official, 117. 
Craftsmen 999 

Handicraftsmen 663 

Machine Workers 336 

Clerks 277 

Clerks 154 

Salesmen 113 

Shippers 10 

Agents 107 

Agents 37 

Brokers 7 

Foreman 36 

Inspectors 13 

Supt. and Mgrs 14 

Enterprisers 186 

Contractors 13 

Manufacturers 9 

Merchants 164 

Proprietors 9 

Owners 4 

Landlords 5 

Professions 75 

Total 2,894 

As " Laborers " are classified all those unskilled workers 
whose toil demands primarily muscular exertion in the 
disposition of rough material. Under this head are 
grouped beside " common day-laborers," farm-hands, 
quarrymen, hod-carriers, longshoremen, road-builders 
and street-sweepers. 



HO A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [290 

By "Servants" are indicated not only those persons 
who are hired to perform the menial tasks of domestic 
life and personal attendance ; but also those employed in 
rendering general service in the performance of such 
functions as guards, drivers, inn-keepers, etc.; as well as 
public servants in the more technical sense, such as 
police and firemen, letter-carriers, etc. Here belong 
most of those who wear stripes and brass buttons of 
private or official design, and the tribe of those who 
stretch the hand for tips and fees. This group as a 
whole, like the preceding, is technically unskilled, and 
only partly organized. There is a great difference be- 
tween its two main divisions, however, in point of social 
consideration, if not of skill. 

Under the heading "Craftsmen" are grouped the 
skilled manual workers, whose industry requires deft- 
ness, practice and knowledge of materials. These are 
the mechanics and artizans of various sorts. They may 
be divided roughly into "Handicraftsmen" and "Ma- 
chine Workers." To the former belong the builders, 
smiths, makers of books, and all those whose trade has 
not been mastered by steel fingers. These crafts vary in 
skill from the rougher work of construction to the art of 
the silversmith and the engraver. To the second divi- 
sion belong machine drivers and mechanics in the strict 
sense, factory hands and process tenders (such as brewers 
and ordinary iron workers). It is interesting here to 
note, that though the hand workers are almost twice as 
numerous as the machine tenders, the special crafts of 
both are about the same in number. This fact illustrates 
the tendency of the machine to divide and conquer. The 
craftsmen have attempted to meet this tendency by 
trades unions. With the exception of certain factory 
hands and helpers, this entire group is pretty generally 



2Q I ] ECONOMIC CONDITIONS I r 1 

organized, and forms the advance guard of working- 
men's movements. 

With the next group, we leave the class of manual 
laborers and enter the business world. Here strength 
and dexterity are supplanted by knowledge of commer- 
cial operations. The first group consists of the " Clerks." 
These are the routine workers of trade and commerce, 
the bookkeepers, cashiers, salesmen and shippers. Their 
weekly wage and uncertain employment relates them to 
the foregoing working class as "proletarians." 

The "Agents" form a connecting link between the 
wage-earners and those persons with capital and income. 
Their practical interests ally them with the bourgeoisie, 
although their dependence upon wages, salaries or com- 
missions show them to be derived from the preceding 
economic orders. Here we have grouped all those who 
have a restricted field of delegated authority, in super- 
vising the work of other men or in managing the inter- 
ests of other people. 

Then come the "Enterprisers" {entrepreneurs), the 
contractors, small manufacturers, traders and shop- 
keepers. These are the persons with some savings and 
shrewdness who operate for profits. They are closely 
identified with the " Proprietors," who are the real capi- 
talists of the section. 

The " Professions " have already been analyzed. There 
were more persons in "artistic" and "practical" lines 
than in the " learned " branches. The economic position 
of this class places it somewhat on the level of agents 
and higher public servants. 

The preceding analyses comprise both sexes. It is of 
interest, therefore, to segregate the women and to dis- 
cover how they were employed. The following table 



II2 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ 2 g 2 

shows the occupations of female heads of households, 
according to the Federal returns. 

Table XVI 

OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN. HEADS OF HOUSEHOLDS, igOO 

Day Laborers — scrub-women, etc 4 

Service 89 

Managers, 16 — boarding-houses, 11; lunch, 1; mgr. club, 2; 
saloon, 2; Nurses, 10; Servants, 16; Janitresses, 20; Laun- 
dresses, 27. 

Manufactures 48 

confections, 2; dressmaking, 27; hats, 1; millinery, 1; mattress, 
1; paper-box, 2; sewings, 2; silk-weavers, warpers, winders, 
etc., 10; umbrellas, 1; woolens, 1. 

Trade and Commerce 20 

Retailers, 15 — coal yard, 1; news-stand, 1; store-keepers, 13. 
Clerks and Sales-women, 5. 

Professions 7 

Actress, 1; Musician, 1; Teachers, 5. 
Landlady 1 

Total Designated by Occupation 169 

Total Undesignated by Occupation 269 

Undesignated but having boarders or lodgers 47 

Undesignated but having house to rent 1 

Total Engaged in Gainful Occupations 217 

No occupation indicated, but living with 

relatives employed 158 

No source of income indicated 63 

Total Female Heads of Households 438 

Half the women were engaged in gainful operations. 
Of these, 63 per cent were employed in various forms of 
personal service — perhaps the most natural type of work 
for women, and one for them equivalent to unskilled 
labor in general (with obvious exceptions, such as nurs- 
ing and catering). Twenty-two per cent were engaged 
in manufactures (mostly sewing trades), and 9 per cent 
were in commercial lines, especially as small shopkeepers. 



293] ECONOMIC CONDITIONS H3 

In this analysis we are limited by having at hand no 
data in regard to wives, daughters, other female relatives 
and boarders. From personal observation, however, it 
is evident that a considerable number of married women 
take lodgers and do housework for other people, in 
order to supplement the family earnings. Many of the 
younger women are in stores, offices and factories. The 
coming generation shows a tendency to " clerk it " before 
marriage. The facts as a whole indicate that women are 
by no means idle members of the community. 

Let us now see how the men are distributed in various 
occupations according to nationality and age. For this 
purpose we have used the State census returns of poten- 
tial voters for 1905. 1 This is also a selected group, but 
it is typical, and may indicate more recent tendencies. 
The table on the following page shows the numbers by 
nativities in the various lines of industry. 

Americans, since they constitute more than half the 
entire number returned, naturally predominate in most 
lines. This is true of absolute numbers in all important 
branches except unskilled labor. Here the Irish surpass 
other nationalities ; but they seem in turn to be yielding 
before the Italian "pick-and-shovel-man." From prac- 
tically all the more unskilled and "less honored" lines 
of work, the aspiring native is being dislodged by the 
sturdy peasants and servitors of Europe. The Ameri- 
cans show up best in the professions and govern- 
ment service, in commercial enterprise, in transporta- 
tion, construction and the transforming industries. In 
the first, they stand preeminent, sharing honors only 
with their English cousins. This fact appears to be due 
to opportunities for education and social advance, open 

1 Cf. p. 44, note 1. 



ii4 



A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE 



[294 



XVII 

INDUSTRY BY NATIONALITIES. POTENTIAL VOTERS, 



1905 



Labor 

Service 

Extractive 

Transforming 

Construction 

Manufacturing 

Transport 

Trade and Commerce 

Govt. Employ 

Professions 

Retired 

Not Given 

Totals 



c 
a 

'u 

< 

52 
36 


J3 
jcn 

'u 

t— 1 

58 

16 

I 

8 
12 
12 
43 
24 
20 
1 
1 

8 


204 


OS 

a 

u 
<v 



16 

15 

I 

8 

15 
31 

20 
38 

I 

I 

2 

10 

158 


"5b 
c 
W 

3 
3 

1 

10 

8 

5 
2 

1 
2 


en 

1 

C/l 
I 


C 

5 
2 





C/5 


c 
*> 

*5 

a 

a 
2 


"en 
en 


c 

.2 
'C 

rt 

bo 

C 

6 

V-r 

en 

< 


1 

tn 

.2 

> 












^6 


I 
2 

17 










I 

I 
I 


2 

4 


81 
62 
85 
125 
3i 
13 


5 

1 
1 


8 

4 


7 
I 


2 

5 


2 


2 

I 


2 


3 


2 


























1 


20 


35 


21 


1 
15 










534 


14 


- 


9 


6 


10 



137 

73 
4 

44 
140 
150 
154 
201 

54 

17 

6 

39 
1019 



most readily to natives and to those who speak the ver- 
nacular without foreign accent. The largest number of 
Americans, however, go in for trade and commerce. 
This appears to be the line offering quickest financial 
returns for shrewdness, and demanding least routine 
application. Here the most effective competitor is the 



295 ] ECONOMIC CONDITIONS i r 5 

methodical German clerk and thrifty shop-keeper. In 
transportation, construction and transformation, we have 
to do with industries that require agility, courage and 
decision. For the stirring occupations of public guar- 
dianship and transportation, the Irish appear to be our 
most ambitious rivals. In the building trades, it is our 
hardy North-European relatives — the English, Scotch 
and Scandinavians — who are relatively most numerous. 
But in the rather monotonous branches of manufactur- 
ing, the more patient and skilful Germans and Swiss 
seem to take first place. The practical domination of 
silk-weaving by Swiss artizans, is an interesting example 
of national specialization. For the more recently ar- 
rived Italian workmen and Russian Jews, we have 
scarcely sufficient data for our neighborhood to gen- 
eralize. The Federal returns for 1900, however, show 
that these people also enter largely into the manufactur- 
ing industries of New York. 1 When the time comes to 
retire from active business life, the Germans seem to 
have made most systematic provision for old age. The 
Irish are rather wont to depend upon the earnings of 
their children. The American frequently has no occupa- 
tion because he has mastered none. 

We must now endeavor to discover the tendencies of 
the working population to enter various types of occu- 
pations or to drop out with advancing years. The fol- 
lowing table presents a classification of the voters just 
enumerated, arranged according to age in grades of 
employment as set forth in Table XV. 

1 See especially Occupations, pp. 642-649 (analysis for Manhattan 
and Bronx). 



Il6 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [ 2 g6 

Table XVIII 

OCCUPATIONS BY GRADE ACCORDING TO AGE. POTENTIAL VOTERS, I905 



Labor 

Service 

Craftsmen . 

Clerks 

Agents 

Merchants . 
Professions 
Retired 
Not Given . 



Totals 



20-29 



37 
61 
82 
70 

7 

12 
6 



30-39 



286 



47 

99 

117 

45 

4 
19 

6 



342 



40-49 



28 
61 

83 
22 
10 
21 
2 



232 



50-59 



15 
19 

47 
4 
1 

4 
3 
2 

7 



102 



60-69 



40 



7o-79 



16 



80-89 



Total 



143 

246 

342 

143 

24 

58 

18 

6 

39 



1019 



It will be seen at a glance, that about five-sixths of 
these workers are under fifty. At that age, those 
who are able begin to retire, and only a rapidly dimin- 
ishing proportion remain engaged in active industry. 
In this respect, however, the different lines show inter- 
esting variations. Evidently the age period about 30 
years is the most vigorous working time for the majority 
of men. It is within this decade that the greatest num- 
bers in all manual lines fall. The mercantile pursuits, 
however, prove exceptions. The clerk class contains 
mostly younger men. On the other hand, the respon- 
sibility of agency and supervision appears not to settle 
until the forties. The merchants also are mostly men 
about this age. Apparently youthful smartness and the 
tried judgment of maturity are the respective qualities 
that determine this distribution in commerce. 

It is the working-men, however, who are in the 
majority. Accordingly their distribution is more sig- 
nificant for classifying the working population according 



297] 



ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 



117 



to age. The proportions of servants and craftsmen in 
successive periods correspond pretty closely with the 
rate of variation for all occupations. The characteristics 
are, a rapid increase (about 50 per cent increment) 
from the twenties to the thirties, a similar decrease dur- 
ing the forties, an even more rapid decline in the fifties, 
and by seventy the race is about run. True, some of the 
laborers still hang on (perhaps from necessity), although 
such employment is probably merely nominal. 

Let us see how the ranks are recruited. Evidently the 
the young men are most numerous in the handicrafts, in 
general public service and in commercial lines. It is in- 
teresting to note how many of these are natives, and to 
discover what the tendency of Americans with advancing 
years may be. Upon this problem the following table 
throws some light. 

Table XIX 

NATIVE BORN VOTERS, I905. GRADED OCCUPATIONS BY AGE 



I 

J 20-29 



Labor ! 24 

Service | 48 



30-39 



Crafts 

Clerks 

Agents.- •• 
Merchants 
Professions 



Totals 207 



58 
55 

4 
12 

6 



15 

48 

58 

27 

1 

2 

5 



156 



40-49 


50-59 


60-69 


70-79 


10 


3 


1 


1 


30 


7 


3 




33 


15 


2 




14 
8 

9 


3 
1 


1 


1 














105 


30 


7 


3 



Total 



54 
136 
166 
100 

15 
24 

13 



508 



On comparing this with the preceding table, it is clear 
that young Americans in increasing proportions are en- 
tering into business enterprise. The greater numbers in 
the handicrafts and service are made up largely of immi- 



Il8 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [298 

grants, domestic and foreign. The same tendency is evi- 
dent from the registration for successive years in the 
supplementary classes and social clubs of Speyer School. 
In an increasing degree, these young people show their 
preference for clerical positions. This fact taken in con- 
nection with the influx of foreign workmen, leads us to 
believe that the natives are likely to become a race of 
salesmen and stenographers. It must be added, how- 
ever, that many boys who begin in offices and stores, 
finding their earning capacity limited and seeing slight 
chance of advancement, drop out of business and take 
up a trade. They show little tendency to follow their 
fathers' lines, however. Only four such cases were noted 
in 1900 — three stationary engineers and one roofer. 

In the preceding paragraphs we have seen how the 
people are distributed according to their occupations. 
We must now endeavor to indicate what social consid- 
eration is accorded to their labor in the form of wages. 
The general level of remuneration will give us some no- 
tion of the economic welfare of the neighborhood. For 
this purpose we have taken the industries of the heads 
of households, presented in Table XIV (p. 105), as the 
basis of distribution. For each line of business, we have 
used the average rate or minimum union wage in Man- 
hattan at the date of the last official investigation of this 
matter {i. e., Sept. 30, 1907) / This has occasionally 
been corrected from knowledge of the conditions of im- 
portant local industries. But in the main the union 
basis has been assumed as the one that establishes a rate 
obtainable by most workmen who care to do so. We 

1 For this data the writer is indebted to the kindness of Dr. L. W. 
Hatch, Chief Statistician of the New York State Department of Labor, 
and to Mr. E. Stagg Whitin, Investigator. 



299] 



ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 



II 9 



have supposed also that the relative numbers in the vari- 
ous trades are not widely different from those found in 
the Federal enumeration. Leaving out of account those 
commercial and professional lines in which returns are 
uncertain, we may regard the following table as indica- 
tive of the general level of daily wages in our neighbor- 
hood. We have here accounted for about one-sixth of the 
present working population; but this number represents 
the characteristic employments of the principal wage- 
earners of our families, and so may be considered typical 
of workingmen's incomes. 



Table XX 

NUMBER OF PERSONS IN EMPLOYMENTS WITH GIVEN LEVEL OF WAGES 



Mean Wage 


No. of 
Persons 


Mean Wage 


No. of 
Persons 


$I.00-$I.24 

1. 25-1. 49 

1.50- 1.74 

1-75- 1-99 

2.00- 2.24 

2.25- 2.49 

2.50- 2.74 

2.75- 2.99 

3.00- 3.24 


5 

45 

37 

32 

460 

27 

286 

141 

65 
18 

35 


$3-75-$3-99 

4.00- 4.24 

4.25- 4.49 

4.50- 4-74 

4-75- 4-99 

5.00- 5.24 

5.25- 5.49 

5.50- 5-74 


119 

97 

15 

9 

59 

32 

56 


3.25- 3.49 

3.50- 3.74 


Median 
Wage 

$2.64 


Total 
Persons 
1,538 



In the first group ($i-$2) belong the tinkers, unskilled 
factory hands, the waiters and most needle-women. These 
people can scarcely support a family without additional in- 
come. To the two-dollar group belong the day laborers, 
the skilled servants, drivers, good machine hands, many 
handicraftsmen, and most of the common clerks and 



I2 o A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [300 

salesmen. It will be seen that this is the largest class of 
breadwinners, a great number of our neighbors receiving 
between thirteen and seventeen dollars a week. 1 The 
next class includes the dynasts of labor, the longshore- 
men and coal-heavers, who work strenuously for limited 
periods. Here also belong the riggers, the metal-workers 
and the stone-sawyers, the painters and decorators, the 
printers, the local conductors and the postmen. Above 
the four-dollar level we enter the aristocracy of handi- 
crafts. Here are most of the smiths, the construction 
plumbers, the tile-layers and the engineers. Just within 
this general class also, the better grades of book-keepers 
and cashiers fall. Beyond five dollars we find more 
builders — masons, plasterers and the like. But their high 
rate of daily wage scarcely compensates for the long 
seasons of idleness that intervene between lively spells. 
A discussion of the steadiness of employment, however, 
belongs more properly to a special study of local industry. 

The classification given above does not include the 
many boys and young women in Manhattanville, who 
help support the family by paying board at home. As 
saleswomen, the girls average $6 to $8 a week. This 
puts them in the first group. The boys and girls who 
begin as store-help and apprentices, make from $2.50 to 
$5. This is clearly an order of supplementary earnings. 

In order that the relative wage levels of the chief in- 
dustrial classes in our section may be a little more defin- 
ite, we have thrown the data of Table XX into another 
form. In this arrangement the earnings of the different 
grades are shown as follows: 

1 The mode is probably about $2.60 for daily wage. 



301] ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 

Table XXI 

MEAN LEVEL OF WAGE ACCORDING TO TYPE OF OCCUPATION 



121 



Laborers 

Public Service. 
Craftsmen 
Clerks 



$I-$2 



34 
85 



$2-$3 



340 

299 

210 

65 



$3-$4 



6 
36 

195 j 115 
I 65 



$4-$5 



$ 5 -$6 



88 



Medians 



$2.12^ 

2.59^ 

3-54 

3.50 



Clearly the skilled handicraftsmen are the best paid. 
But as before remarked, the employment in such lines is 
not very steady. The highest level is probably main- 
tained by the skilled operatives, such as the weavers. 
Although the better grade of book-keepers raises the 
clerks' average, it is probable that a correctly weighted 
result would be much lower (probably somewhere about 
$3). Between the three-dollar man and the four-dollar 
man there seems to be fixed an economic gulf, almost 
dividing the wage-earner from the salaried person. This 
is impassible for the laborer, for all but a few engaged 
in public service, and for most artizans. The ordinary 
clerk and conductor seems to stick at about the weekly 
twenty-dollar limit, and runs small chance of exceeding 
it. Such differences mean distinctions in homes, cloth- 
ing and amusements. Let us see how some of these 
appear. 

Perhaps the most important item of expenditure in 
the Borough of Manhattan is that for rent. In order to 
discover the level of rents for apartments in Manhattan- 
ville, the writer and some of his friends adopted the 



Medians calculated from data for small intervals. 



I2 2 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [302 

method of looking at every suite and tenement adver- 
tised to let in the section, during a period of two months 
last winter. The rooms were examined, the rates asked 
for, and the general character of the adjoining properties 
inquired into. In this way some 80 houses were visited 
in all parts of the neighborhood, and the rents of more 
than 235 apartments were noted. These seemed to fall 
naturally into four groups : First, those few renting for 
less than $15 a month. Such apartments are to be had 
in the old dumb-bell brick tenements along lower Am- 
sterdam Avenue, on Old Broadway and 125th Street. 
They consist mostly of three rooms without bath or heat 
in the older houses, or of four compartments in the 
rear of the newer tenements. The second class includes 
apartments ranging from $15 to $23 per month, averag- 
ing about $18. This is by far the largest group, and 
includes most of the houses in our neighborhood (such 
as may be seen along middle Amsterdam Avenue and 
the cross streets). There are generally 4 or 5 rooms 
with private toilet and hot water, but not always with 
bath and steam heat. The rooms are arranged "rail- 
road fashion" in the smaller houses or bunched in one 
corner of the newer buildings. The next class comprises 
the better houses along the edges of our neighborhood. 
Many of the new buildings erected on vacant plots within 
the last three years, are of this grade. Here are the 
five-room apartments with steam heat and bath, renting 
at $24 to $28 per month. The last group is composed 
of all apartments costing $30 or over. These are the 
marginal cases, not clearly divided from the former 
group. They are the six-room flats with a street out- 
look, such as may be had along Broadway and 134th 
Street. The suites on 124th Street and St. Nicholas 



303] ECONOMIC CONDITIONS I2 $ 

Avenue, which rent for $50 and over, can scarcely be 
considered as within the economic bounds of Manhattan- 
ville. A full consideration of realty values and tenement 
conditions belongs rather to a discussion of the local 
housing problem. So much may suffice upon this point 
to give some conception of the economic standards of 
our neighborhood. We may summarize our conclusions 
upon rent with the general statement, that apartments in 
this section are let at the rate of $1 per room per week; 
25 cents more brings comfort; 25 cents less means 
hardship. 

Another item of some importance in estimating the 
general manner of life among the people is the amount 
of money spent for food. A rough idea of this may be 
gained from the average weekly grocery bills. These 
are fairly comprehensive from our neighbors, because 
such accounts include most of the bread, milk, vegetables 
and fruit used by the tenement families, as well as the 
staple groceries and provisions. The accounts of one of 
the best known dealers in the section confirm certain 
generalizations upon this point. The conclusions in 
brief are, that the weekly bills range from $3 to $11, av- 
eraging about $8 for the usual family of five persons ; 
that the lower expenditures are due to small families, 
and that the higher cost is attributable to demand for a 
better grade of goods. One fact that strikes the inves- 
tigator is the poor economy resulting from the purchase 
of supplies in small quantities. Because of the lack of 
proper facilities for storing such things, fruit is bought 
by the piece, potatoes by the quart and coal by the 
bucket. The price seems low, but the retail profits 
are large. Another source of more serious results is 
the bargain sale of stale or slightly damaged supplies. 



124 A STUDY 0F MANHATTANVILLE [304 

We cannot here attempt a further analysis of the stand- 
ard of living among our neighbors. The facts noted, 
however, may indicate a general basis of values estab- 
lished in this section. 

Let us suppose that a man with a wife and three young 
children receives a wage of $15 a week. Assume that 
he is able to obtain suitable rooms for $15 a month. 1 
As we have just seen, food will cost about $1 a day. 
Allow 50 cents a week for light and heat, and there re- 
mains $4 for clothing, medicine, insurance and all other 
necessary expenses. Obviously no great margin is left 
for recreation or investment. If there is sickness, some- 
one must do without a new dress to pay the doctor's 
bill. In times of strike or a dull season the cupboard is 
likely to be rather bare. When an accident befalls the 
chief wage-earner, the wife and children must go to work. 
This resource failing, there is nothing to do but pawn 
the furniture or seek assistance, first from friends, then 
from some society. Seven hundred and fifty dollars a 
year is so near the level of subsistence for an average 
family in New York city, that a period of misfortune 
rapidly reduces such people to the necessity of asking 
aid. 

From January 1, 1900, to December 31, 1905, there 
were recorded 896 cases of charitable aid sought or ob- 
tained for our neighborhood. From July 1, 1905, to 
July 1, 1906, 288 such cases were reported. 2 The distri- 

1 The median for cases noted in our neighborhood was $22. 

2 This includes both new cases and old ones continued within this 
period. Active treatment or relief by any organization is not neces- 
sarily implied. For the data used in these paragraphs, the writer is in- 
debted to the officials of the Charity Organization Society, for permis- 
sion to consult their general files and also the records of the Riverside 
District. 



305] ECONOMIC CONDITIONS I2 $ 

bution of these instances throughout the section is indi- 
cated by the circles on the accompanying map. 1 It will 
be seen at a glance that these differ considerably in their 
frequency, varying from 25 to 30 in the blocks bordering 
upper and lower Amsterdam Avenue, to nothing (or a 
negligible quantity) along Broadway and 129th Street. 
Nor is this arrangement due merely to relative density of 
population ; for the ratio of such cases to the total numbers 
in the block range from 1 in every 150 persons, to 1 in 20. 
The causes for this divergence are difficult to extract. In 
general it may be said that the localities where poverty 
abounds are the sections wherein are the cheapest houses, 
the most tenants of various racial stocks, the largest 
families and the greatest numbers of unskilled laborers. 
This does not explain local poverty, but merely states its 
vicious circle of mutually conditioned circumstances. 

For the neighborhood as a whole, the percentage of 
poverty based upon these figures is 1.56 per cent. But 
this number by no means represents the extent of want. 
In the first place, it must be corrected so as to apply to 
entire households rather than to individuals. Upon this 
basis the amount is about 7 per cent. 2 This may fairly 
well represent the proportion of publicly recognized 
poverty. The mass that hides away in desolate tene- 
ments can only be guessed at. 

Let us briefly analyze some of the cases under treat- 
ment, in order better to understand the circumstances of 
those who fail. For this purpose we have taken the 33 

1 See Frontispiece. 

2 Our formula is, 4.5 (no. cases) = no. individuals in families. This, 
however, is a small figure to represent the average number of persons 
in such households, as we shall see. 



126 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [306 

households in the hands of the local branch of the Charity 
Organization Society during December last. These cases 
involved 181 persons — 26 men, 31 women and 124 chil- 
dren. In size the households varied from a single indi- 
vidual to a family with 9 children, averaging between 5 
and 6 persons, including 4 children. As to marital con- 
dition, 25 were married couples, 6 were widows, 1 a 
widower and 1 solitary woman. In age the men varied 
from 25 years to 73 years, with the median between 38 
and 39 years ; the women ranged from 20 to 79, center- 
ing at 2)7- Accordingly it is a middle-aged group with 
which we have to deal. In regard to nationality, 12 
heads of households were native-born whites, 12 Irish, 4 
English, and the others Scotch, German, Dutch, Swedish 
and negro respectively. It is interesting to find no 
Hebrews nor Italians in this small number. Nearly all 
the foreigners had been in this country over 15 years, 
several having married American wives. Most of them 
had been in the city for a number of years. With regard 
to occupations, 5 of the men were engaged in transpor- 
tation (as drivers, conductors, etc.), 4 were builders — 
here note 3 plasterers out of work — 4 were in general 
service, 3 laborers, and the same number in manufactur- 
ing lines and clerkships respectively. The women were 
janitresses or did day's work, several thus helping out 
the family resources. One old lady supported herself 
and a grandchild by sewing. So far as expenses were 
concerned, most of the rents varied from $12 to $15, 
several lodgings being given for performing janitor 
service. It is difficult for a family of eight or nine per- 
sons to live beautifully in three or four rooms. Yet 
many of our neighbors attempt to do so. 

Having now indicated the circumstances of those 



307] ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 12 y 

people who fall below the level of subsistence, let us 
attempt to discover some of the occasions of their mis- 
fortune. A hasty reading of the cases considered reveals 
the fact, that in eleven, lack of steady work was the 
principal condition of hardship. In two other instances, 
this situation was complicated by a native shiftlessness 
and inefficiency on the part of the wage-earner. In the 
cases of three women left with families, failure to secure 
sufficient work to gain an adequate income was also 
a contributory cause. One business failure may be in- 
cluded with this group. This general economic situa- 
tion sometimes leads to an insidious moral degenera- 
tion. For leisure to hang around corners and to 
"sponge" drinks from sympathizing friends, softens a 
man's fiber. 

The economic situation is rendered acute by the sick- 
ness, disability or death of the chief wage-earner. In 7 
cases, women were left with families to support; in 6 
others, sickness caused hardship ; and in 4 more, disa- 
bility from accident or old age rendered income precari- 
ous. This general group of causes is perhaps more 
characteristic of our neighborhood than any other. 1 
Desertion occasionally appears, but it is not noted among 
this number. It sometimes arises from an effort to ob- 
tain work elsewhere. The new-found liberty may be- 
come so attractive that old ties are broken. 

A contributory circumstance in several cases (9 all 
told) is the size of the family. When a young working- 
man is earning good pay, marriage is apt to be hastened, 

x It is interesting to note, that at the time of the last Census, 40 per 
cent of the patients of the J. Hood Wright Emergency Hospital were 
Irish; 60 per cent were Americans. 



I2 8 '4 STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [308 

and the children arrive rapidly. But when accident or 
death intervenes, the number of mouths to be fed is a 
serious problem. This is especially the case when the 
whole burden is thrown on the wife or widow. Children 
are doubtless the poor man's blessing ; but seven, eight 
or nine youngsters without means of support, become 
an embarrassment for the time being. Many children 
may be seen about the Hollow, bringing home wood and 
carrying bundles for the market men. But such work 
furnishes a meager income. 

Another index of the prosperity of a community is 
the relative number of families owning their homes. 
In 1900, 51 instances of property so held were reported 
for our section. These households comprised 197 related 
persons, i. e., 1.34 per cent of the population at that 
time. The dwellings were mostly the small, old houses 
left in the original Irish and German settlements about 
Lawrence and 130th Streets. In a few instances, how- 
ever, the owner had put up a tenement on his land, and 
looked after the renting himself. It will be recollected 
that five persons in the list of occupations (Table XV) 
were returned as landlords. Half of all the properties 
were mortgaged. Many of the owners of houses were 
widows sharing their homes with relatives. The recent 
increase in land values has caused most of the old dwell- 
ings to disappear ; and it is probably true that fewer 
houses are now owned by the residents. Real estate is 
not held that way any longer. Land is sold or leased to 
a company that disposes of it to a speculator, or puts up 
a row of apartments for rent. The operation is frequently 
mortgaged to the contractor or other persons. The 
type of house is cheap, and is kept filled by concessions 
in the payments of rent. In the words of an old resi- 



309] ECONOMIC CONDITIONS I2 g 

dent, " Houses nowadays are built by the Dagos, owned 
by the Jews, and paid for by poor Irish tenants." 

So much may indicate the general economic conditions 
that control the lives of the people in Manhattanville. 
We must next endeavor to discover the effects of these 
circumstances upon the vitality of the local population. 



CHAPTER V 

Vital Tendencies 

The primary social phenomenon in vital statistics is 
marriage. The number of unions and the age of the 
contracting parties indicate the relative prosperity and 
determine the normal rate of increase in the population. 
Referring to Table XI (p. 49), we find that 17.4 per 
thousand represents the marriage rate in 1900. As 
already stated, we have no data for making this crude 
ratio exact. The rate obtained is high, however; 1 and 
shows that a moderate degree of prosperity is sufficient 
to warrant our neighbors in assuming the responsibili- 
ties of a family. This proportion varies among different 
elements in the population, being lower among the col- 
ored people, the Italians and the native white stock, 
than among most of the immigrants. The number of 
widows and separated persons is also given in the table 
referred to. 

The proportion of such married persons to the total 
population at successive age periods is indicated roughly 
on Plate A. The usual age at marriage may be inferred 
from the subjoined distribution, obtained from the 
records of Annunciation parish for the Inter-Lenten 
period of 1908-09. 

1 67". Newsholme, op. cit., p. 57. 
130 [310 



3 11 ] 



VITAL TENDENCIES 



131 



Men . . . 
Women 



-20yrs. 


20-24 


25-29 


30-34 


35-39 


40-44 


1 


11 


19 


15 


5 


1 


6 


16 


18 


10 


1 


1 



Medians 



28 yrs., 8.4 mo. 
26 yrs., 1.2 mo. 



This shows a fairly mature union, which may be re- 
garded as typical of our Irish-American neighbors. 
Intermarriages noted in this list were, Americans with 
Irish, Scotch, Germans and French; Irish with Dutch 
and Italian. Eight mixed weddings in fifty-two shows 
a fairly high degree of national amalgamation (with com- 
mon religious ties). 

The most essential vital factor is the number of births. 
For the year ending June 1, 1905, 486 births were re- 
corded, which gives a crude rate of 26.36 per thousand. 1 
This increase was not distributed evenly throughout the 
population, however, but was centered in certain parts, 
as shown by the stars on our map. The comparative 
increase of different blocks varied widely. Nor was this 
due solely to the composition of the local population; 
for the range in number of births per thousand women 
between the ages of 20 and 45 years, extended from 
none at all (where 13 such females were noted), to 264 
per thousand, 2 the average on this basis being 112.3. 

This high degree of variability is significant. The 
blocks that show the greatest fecundity ratio are those 
on the northern hill between Broadway and Convent 



1 There were 262 boys and 224 girls. The rate becomes 27.39, if the 
estimated population for January 1, 1905, be taken as the basis, and 
correction be made for inmates of institutions. These corrections, 
however, involve more uncertainty than they add in precision. 

2 Solitary instances omitted. 



132 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [$ I2 

Avenue. This region, it will be remembered, is one of 
cheap tenements, occupied by a mixed Irish-American 
population of comparatively recent entry. A second 
group is found along 125th Street east of Amsterdam 
Avenue. The two blocks west of these also show a 
large number of births. But in one case the numbers 
of American women in the more expensive flats on 124th 
Street, who did not bear children, cut down the ratio of 
the block. In the square north of it the thrifty natives 
also reduced the percentage. The blocks centering on 
the two main diagonal streets of the old village are the 
ones that show a low rate of increase. This suggests 
that the rate of increase may be correlated with the na- 
tionality of the local population. Let us see if this is 
the case. 

Unfortunately the registration of births by streets 
does not indicate the parent-nativity. We have, how- 
ever, an index of comparative fertility and survival in the 
number of children to a family, whose head is registered 
according to birth-place. In 1900, the proportion of 
households with a given number of children of native 
origin was as follows : 



313] 



VITAL TENDENCIES 
Table XXII 



133 



PERCENTAGE OF 


FAMILIES HAVING A 


GIVEN 


NUMBER OF CHILDREN 


ACCORDING TO 


PARENT NATIVITY OF NATIVE-BORN 


(MARRIED) HEADS 




/~V 


























<v 


















C 






No. of 
Children 


2 


T3 
G 

Ih 


£ 

O 


T3 

C 

'bfl 
C 

w 


C 





o3 

C 
03 

u 


<v 

C 

Ih 

fa 


Ih 

6 


T3 
0) 


Ih 

— >h 

03 03 

€* 
H 


> 

-4-» 




Ih 

bo 





•25 


.15 


.20 


.25 


.15 


.33 


.30 


.40 


.11 


.18 


.21 


.42 


1 




.31 


.17 


.18 


.20 


.25 




.10 


•30 


.43 


.19 


.24 


.29 


2 




.22 


.18 


.25 


•30 


.10 




.20 


.20 


.05 


.20 


.21 


.14 


3 




.10 


.20 


•17 


.16 


• 15 


•33 


.10 


.10 


.22 


.19 


.15 


•OS 


4 




.05 


.12 


.og 


.02 


.20 


.17 


.10 




.11 


.10 


.08 


03 


5 




.04 


.11 


.06 


.04 


.15 


.17 






•05 


.08 


.06+ 


.04 


6 




.02 


.03 


.02 








.TO 






.03 


.02 


.02 


7 




.01 


.01 


.01 


.01 


. . . 




.10 


. . . 




.01 + 


.01+ 


.01 


8 






.02 


.01 












.03 


.01 


.01 




9 






.01 


.01 














—.01 


— .01 


... 


Av. no. . . . 


1.6 


2.6 


2.2 


1-7 


2.4 


1.5 


2.5 


1 


2.1 


2.2 


2.1 


1.2 



It is obvious from this table that the native stock in 
this section has not been maintaining itself, despite con- 
stant reinforcement from Irish, German and British 
sources. The figures for American-born persons of 
Scotch, Canadian, French and other foreign parentage 
cannot be taken as very accurate, because of the compara- 
tively small number of instances upon which the percent- 
ages are based. For the first three elements the ratios 
and averages may be considered as fairly reliable indices 
for the period referred to. 

The negroes clearly have not been holding their own. 
This is due to a low marriage rate, high infant mortality 
and certain distempers attacking colored people in our 



134 



A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE 



[314 



great cities. Regarding our table as a chart of racial 
survival, we may say that these people are liable to die 
out under such conditions. 

Let us see how the account stands for our " imported 
Americans." The following table presents this data so 
far as obtainable for 1900. 

Table XXIII 

PERCENTAGE OF FAMILIES (FOREIGN-BORN HEADS) HAVING GIVEN 
NUMBER OF CHILDREN 









<n 






























<L> 










T3 




















a 










C 


>% 












No. 


13 


>> 

c 
a 

B 

u 


as 


.2 
'> 

as 
C 

rt 


T3 
C 

O 


T3 
C 
as 

"£ 

N 


"al 


'0 

fin 

G 
aS 

.2 
en 

3 


Ih 

as 

be 
a 

.2 

w 

3 


a 

as 


c 

aS 




T3 
<u 


13 






I— 1 





w 


Cfl 


C/} 


m 


H-t 


tf 


<: 


fe 


U 


O 


5 


H 


0.. 


•15 


.15 


.26 


.20 


.11 


.16 


.26 


.14 


.20 


•35 


.51 


.26 


.07 


.17 


1.. 


.19 


.23 


.20 


.22 


.22 


.22 


.12 


.06 


.24 


.10 


.18 


.26 


.43 


.21 


2.. 


.22 


.23 


•17 


•25 


.29 


.16 


.16 


.25 


.24 


.10 


.18 


.16 


.22 


.22 


3-- 


•17 


.17 


.14 


.14 


.24 


.24 


.21 


•31 


.20 


.20 




.11 


.21 


.17 


4.. 


•13 


.12 


.11 


.08 


.11 


.11 


.19 


.11 




.15 


.07 


.11 




.12 


5-. 


.07 


.05 


•03 


•05 




.02 


.04 


.08 


.04 


•05 




.10 


.07 


.05 


6.. 


.03 


•03 


•05 


.04 


.02 


.05 


.02 




.08 










.03 


7-. 


.02 


.01 


— .03 


.02 


.01 


.04 




•03 




.05 








.02 


8.. 


.01 


.005 


.01 










.02 






.06 






.007 


9-. 
10.. 


— 01 


.005 
























.003 


.001 
























Av. 






























no. 


2.5 


2.3 


2.1 


2 


2.2 


2.4 


2.2 


2.5 


1.6 


2.2 


1.2 


1.8 


1.9 


2.3 



This table also presents statistical irregularities in the 
latter columns (due to insufficient data) which might be 
corrected by interpolation. But taking the ratios based 
on actual returns we note some interesting comparisons 
and contrasts with the figures for the native families just 



315] VITAL TENDENCIES I35 

presented. In general, it will be observed, the natural- 
ized peoples — Celts and Teutons — are increasing more 
rapidly than the so-called American stock. So far as we 
can judge from our limited returns, this is also true of 
the Latins and the Hebrews. The rate for the foreign- 
born as a whole exceeds that of the natives. The differ- 
ence at first appears slight. But when we realize that 
10 established American families produce 16 children, 
whereas the same, number of foreign households show 
23, the disproportion becomes evident. When we ob- 
serve that 66 children out of 100 have foreign parents, 
25 are of the second generation of immigrants and 9 
have American grandparents, we conclude that the na- 
tive race occasionally referred to is not so much being 
displaced as reformed. 

The increase for the section as a whole, however — na- 
tive and foreign — is scarcely sufficient to insure rapid 
growth. We have already remarked that the develop- 
ment is by accretion. But let us now consider what is 
the type of man here produced. For this purpose we 
have taken the records of physical examinations of the 
young people in the classes and clubs of Speyer School 
for a period covering eight years. 1 The numbers at each 
age are relatively small (360 records covering eight years 
of age), but the results furnish a reasonably accurate 
index of the development of children living in Manhat- 
tanville. The medians of measurements for each year are 
given 2 and compared (without correction) with those 

*For the completion of these data, the writer is indebted to Miss 
Amy Schiissler, Principal of the school, who permitted access to recent 
records. 

2 Since ages were not always noted by months, the mid-year period 
was used. 



136 



A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE 



[316 



given by Hastings for typical American school children. 1 
Beside these are placed the figures for the pupils of Hor- 
ace Mann School, which is a selected group of prosperous 
young New Yorkers. 2 



Table XXIV 

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN 





Height (in inches) 


Weight (in pounds) 


Age 


Spey 


er S. 


Hastings 


H. M. S. 


Spey 


er S. 


Hastings 


H. M. S. 




m. 


f. 


m. 


f. 


m. 


f. 


m. 


f. 


m. 


f. 


m. 


f. 


7 






45-6 


45-3 


48.1 


47-4 


46.9 


45-5 


50.9 


48.5 




46.9 


47.6 










47 


48.7 










8 


49-3 


49.4 


47.7 


47.3 


49-7 


49.1 


50.5 


5i 


50.8 


48.8 


54-8 


53-1 


9 






49.6 


49-7 


51.7 


5i 






55 


54-7 


59.5 


59-9 




50.4 


S0.2 










52.8 


54.3 








10 


53-4 


52.5 


51.6 


51.7 


53-2 


53-3 


61.5 


61 


61.2 


59-8 


64.5 


65.6 


11 


55-3 


55-1 


53.i 


53-2 


55-2 


55-8 


68.2 


67.5 


65.8 


63.8 


69.9 


73.6 


12 


56.6 


57-7 


55-3 


55-9 


57-4 


58.1 


72.6 


76.5 


72.6 


72.6 


77-2 


81.3 


13 


56.7 


59-4 


57-i 


58.5 


59 


60.3 


74-5 


95 


78.3 


83.4 


83.5 


92.4 


14 


60.4 


61.4 


59-4 


60.3 


61.3 


62 


88.5 


92 3 


87.3 


94.4 


95 


103. 1 


15 






62.3 


61.7 


64.4 


62.7 






103.2 


102.8 


108 


110.0 



1 Cf. W. W. Hastings, Manual for Physical Measurements. 
2 This exhibit was secured through the kindness of Dr. W. H. Mc- 
Castline and Miss J. R. Seibert, Recorder. 
3 Doubtful value. 



3^7] 



VITAL TENDENCIES 



137 





Lung Capacity (cu. in.) 


Strength of Grip (pounds) 


Age 


Speyer S. 


Hastings 


H. M. S. 


Spey 


sr S. 


Hastings 


H. M. S. 




m. 


f. 


m. 


f. 


m. 


f. 


m. 


f. 


m. 


f. 


m. 


f. 


7 




60 


5i 


77.9 


70 






20 


15 


28.2 


25.6 




74.5 


60.5 










33.6 l 


23.8 










8 


81.5 


80 


70 


60 


857 


78.6 


31.6 


26.4 


24 


20 


32.9 


28.4 


9 


95-5 


84.4 


82 


70 


97.8 


87.3 


35-2 


29.7 


29 


22 


37-5 


32.9 


10 


101.5 


100 


90 


77 


107.2 


94.8 


35-9 


34-1 


33 


29 


43-0 


35-7 


11 


110.5 


104.6 


101 


82 


114.8 


107.7 


45-1 


40.3 


40 


3i 


48.7 


41.2 


12 


120.8 


125.2 


112 


94 


125.9 


118.9' 

49.1 


45.7 


44 


35 


55-3 


46 


13 


123.5 


122 l 


124 


105 


140.2 


142.1 


53-9 


49-5 


51 


40 


59-9 


53-5 


14 


145 


131 


144 


113 


158.8 


144.5 


56.7 


55.8 


55 


46 


68.8 


59 


IS 






161 


123 


183.7 


154.3 






64 


53 


78.3 


62.5 



On looking over these columns, one is first struck 
with the impression that the three groups proceed rather 
evenly, the neighborhood children being midway between 
the typical American child and the more favored private 
school pupils. But closer examination shows that this 
general excellence does not hold in regard to weight 
(the high average for girls of 13 being due to the pres- 
ence of five cases of early maturity). This fact comes 
out more clearly in the case of the boys. The accom- 
panying " graph " shows how the weight of our young 
neighbors runs from two to five pounds under the gen- 
eral level for boys of the same age. In respect to vital 
capacity and strength, however, these children compare 



doubtful values; readings few or scattering. 



138 



A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE 



[318 



Vlntr R 




















r tctoe jd 

Vleicjht of School Boejs 

IniSSlt ij.nl , Typical Chi IS 
Xgtftr " , hcpthattmiYiilL , 
Llpptv " , tfoTaceffiannrvfnls 






/of 




/ 1 
/ / 






// 


q< 


















/ 


GO 


















/ 
/ 


r 

5< 
















/ 
/ I 


/ 
/ 


















/ I 
i 

1 

/ 




7jT 














/' 


^** 




/j 










/ 


f 






JO 








/ 


/ / 
/ 


f 
















/ 1 
/ I 


/ 
/ 










-jfV 




.•■" 


* 


















/-' 


' 














## 

sir" 


Op, . 


r* J 


r S 


t / 


/ 


f / 


2 / 


3 / 


f / 


r 



319] VITAL TENDENCIES I39 

very favorably with the normal ratings, the girls especi- 
ally being considerably above the average. It has been 
suggested that running up the steep slopes may have 
something to do with lung capacity. In both the spiro- 
meter and dynamometer tests, however, so much depends 
upon w T hether young children know how to work the 
machine, that too much reliance cannot be placed upon 
these figures. 

So far as general development is concerned, it may be 
said that the little boys (say from eight to ten years) 
are probably stronger than the average child. But at 
twelve a tendency to fall off begins to appear in all the 
measurements. Why this should be so, we are unable 
to say, unless it is that with approaching puberty un- 
favorable conditions of life begin to show their effects. 
There are some evidences of malnutrition and underfeed- 
ing among the children, and a rather marked tendency 
to kyphosis has been noted. 

The relative physical stamina of the children can be 
determined only by reducing the various measurements 
to some common coefficient and comparing expressions 
of this. For illustrating the method we have combined 
the four items given above in this way : 

Coefficient of Vigor = Wei g h lx Strength 

Height Lung capacity 

The first half of the expression shows the relative mass 
and bottom of the organism. It is thus a rough meas- 
ure of nutrition and general stamina. The second half 
shows the energy and staying power available for work. 
It is thus a measure of force and vital action. The com- 
bination gives a rather adequate expression for physical 
capacity, based upon fairly simple measurements. The 
coefficient increases toward unity at about maturity. 



140 



A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE 



[320 



Plate C 

Coefficients of 


L 


70 






T^ku steal Vigor 


• 




1- 5 


A ~ Sptijt r School ~jBou 
JB ~ /Horace Jfanrn Girls 


i 

5 ! 

» 






c- 


JVor 


mat 


L(A 


:rvt j 


,J3o 


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r <frs. 8 < 


) to n iz id /¥ i$ 



321 ] VITAL TENDENCIES I4I 

Comparing the boys of Speyer School with the stand- 
ards given by Hastings, we find that their vigor meas- 
ured on such a scale of units is rather under the average. 
The curves in Plate C show graphically a comparison of 
the two. The third line is put in to indicate the level of 
a selected group of girls. We may add that this method 
shows the other two curves for girls weaving together 
below that for the boys until the age of thirteen, when 
they both rise above the male level. 

Having now obtained some notion of the physical type 
in our neighborhood, let us see how healthy the people 
are, and with what success they resist disease. As a 
partial indication of morbidity, all cases of contagious or 
dangerous communicable diseases recorded by the De- 
partment of Health for 1905 were marked in our Social 
Welfare Map. 1 It will be noted that the crosses are not 
spread evenly, but are massed with other symbols about 
the centers of densest population (along 125th Street 
and on upper Amsterdam Avenue). The frequencies of 
the various diseases were thus reported : measles, 109 ; 
diphtheria, 42 ; scarlet fever, 37 ; typhoid, 9 ; meningitis, 
9; tuberculosis, 81 ; erysipelas, 1. If the cases had been 
spread evenly, this number would mean that one person 
out of every sixty-seven (on the basis of the population 
for that year) would have been affected with some such 
complaint ; and this would have involved every fifteenth 
family. In other words, about every other house would 
have been under quarantine once during the year. As a 
matter of fact, some tenements had small epidemics, 
comprising three or four cases, and were placarded two 
or three times within the period. 

1 For this data the writer is indebted to the kindness of Dr. K. H. 
Claghorn, Registrar of the Tenement House Department. 



I4 2 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [322 

Next to measles, tuberculosis is most prevalent. Al- 
though the cases are widely scattered, several houses 
had two or three. One dwelling numbered eight victims 
within five years. The worst showing is made by the 
old tenements along Lawrence and Manhattan Streets. 
The sufferers were mostly men of middle age, from native 
or Irish stock. Exposure and careless habits of life 
diminish the chances for recovery. Diphtheria was 
hardest on our little Irish- American friends up the hill ; 
scarlet fever raged in the polyglot flats on 125th 
Street. Typhoid was pretty well centered in the low 
blocks, three cases occurring on land where an old pond 
formerly spread. The cases of meningitis are indicative 
of an epidemic at that time, aggravated by flooded streets. 

The subject of morbidity leads us finally to consider 
the local death-rate. The 312 deaths reported for Man- 
hattanville for June 1, 1904, to June 1, 1905, 1 have been 
roughly located by the dots on the map. Like the other 
entries, they also cluster about the centers of new life, 
but prevail rather in the old low-lying blocks. The 
causes given for these deaths, following the classification 
of the Department of Health, appear opposite : 

From this tabulation it is plain that tuberculosis is the 
worst enemy our neighbors have to face. If we add to 
this number the other cases of diseases affecting the 
respiratory system, we have accounted for 30 per cent of 
the deaths. Moreover, if we compare the number of 
deaths from consumption with the cases reported during 
the year, we find that the proportion of fatality is very 

1 For this data the writer is indebted to the courtesy of Dr. Wm. H. 
Guilfoy, Registrar of the Department of Health. The crude rate of 
16.89 before given, becomes 17.58 if corrections be made as indicated 
for the birth-rate. Such alterations do not materially affect the result- 
ant rate for genetic increase, which is shown, moreover, to be of com- 
paratively slight importance. 



323] VITAL TENDENCIES 143 

Table XXV 

CAUSE OF DEATHS 

I. General Diseases 91 

a. Tuberculosis 44 

b. Cancer 15 

II. Diseases of Nervous System and Sense Organs • 34 
a. Meningitis.-.. 17 

III. Diseases of Circulatory System 18 

a. Heart Disease 15 

IV. Diseases of Respiratory System 36 

a. Pneumonia 19 

V. Disease of Digestive System 57 

a. Diarrhea— Infants 35 

b. Cirrhosis of Liver 9 

VI. Diseases of Genito-urinary System 29 

a. Bright's Disease 19 

VII. Puerperal Diseases 4 

VIII . Diseases of Skin and Cellular Tissue 2 

IX. Congenital Debility — Infants 15 

X . External Causes 20 

a. Accident 17 

b. Suicide 3 

XL Not Specified 6 

high. 1 The victims of diabetes, heart disease and cancer 
are also comparatively numerous. The large number of 
deaths attributed to meningitis was due to a serious 
outbreak in the winters of 1905-6. Three cases of alco- 
holism added to those of cirrhosis of the liver, may give 
some indication of habits of life. The number of acci- 
dents and suicide may throw light upon the circumstances 
of the people as to work and welfare. 

Next to pulmonary complaints, the diseases of infancy 
are the most serious. Seventy-seven babies under one 
year died within the period chosen. That was about 

^ver 54 per cent, if we may regard the number of cases reported 
within the year as giving a rate of attack. This, however, is uncertain. 



I44 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [324 

one-quarter of the total deaths, and nearly 16 per cent 
of all the children born within the year. The principal 
causes were dysentery and congenital debility. The 
former reflects somewhat upon methods of feeding ; the 
latter indicates a certain weakness in the stock. 

The age at death is important as indicating the mean 
duration of life, and suggesting the social consequences 
likely to arise from demise at such an age period. The 



Table XXVI 

AGE AT DEATH, I905 



Age 



- I 

1- 2 

2- 5 ... • 
5-10 

10-15 .... 
15-20 .... 
20-25 .... 
25-30 .... 
30-35 .... 
35-40 
40-45 
45-50 
50-60 .... 

60-70 

70-80 

80+ 

Total 




Females 



34 
7 
5 
6 
2 
5 
7 

12 

9 

5 

11 

5 
12 

14 
5 
4 



143 



actual distribution of decedents in small age groups is 
given herewith. Without attempting to construct a life 
table from such data, we may note certain tendencies 
manifest therein. First, the number of men who died 
this year was greater than that of the women. This fact 
was probably due to the nature of their work. Sec- 



325] VITAL TENDENCIES I45 

ondly, most of the men died between the ages of 30 and 
45, the most productive period. Thirdly, their survival 
was not as long as that of the women. Upon the basis 
of such generalizations we can now begin to understand 
the relation existing between poverty and the death- 
rate. When the wage-earner dies, leaving a large family 
for his widow to support, we have one well established 
cause for destitution. 

The season of the year at which most deaths fall is 
also of interest, as indicating the time when the pressure 
on life is apt to be heaviest. For the period selected, 
the number of deaths was greater in the late winter and 
lowest in the early summer, showing a rise in the hot 
months and a drop in September, before rising again in 
cold weather. This wave shows in general the move- 
ment of mortality, increasing with inclement weather 
and subsiding when the season is mild. The significance 
of the weather for children who must play on the streets 
or be cooped up in the tenements, and for the wage- 
earners who toil in the open, is very great. 

Having indicated the vital currents in our neighbor- 
hood, let us now attempt to show the interrelation of 
these factors of population and economic welfare more 
definitely. For this purpose we have taken twenty-five 
blocks of our section where data was sufficient, and have 
arranged them in order according to their mean position 
in density, national and racial intermixture, and percent- 
age of poverty, births, contagion and death. 1 The rates 
vary considerably, and the correlation is rough ; 2 but the 

^his method of comparison was suggested by Booth's chart, Life 
and Labor in London, Final Volume, p. 17. 

'The probable errors of the final order are rather large, but are not 
sufficient to shift any position more than six places (as a rule, not more 
than three). 



146 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [326 

results are sufficiently accurate to show the comparative 
basis for our map. 

Table XXVII 

COMPARATIVE ORDER OF TWENTY-FIVE BLOCKS WITH THEIR VARIATIONS 
IN FACTORS OF SOCIAL WELL-BEING 











Births 






Blocks 


Density 


Per 


Poverty 


per 1,000 


Con- 


Deaths 


in 


per 


cent 


(cases) 


Women 


tagion 


per 


Order 


Acre 


Mixture 


per 1,000 


2C-45 yrs. 


per 1,000 


1,000 


9125 w 


209 


•355 


34 


172 


2 8. 5 


32.3 


9124 


161 


•352 


29 


154 


27.5 


20.6 


9133 w 


314 


•357 


28 


217.38 


H.3 


18.8 


10132 e 


315 


•314 


23 


183 


11-34 


24.4 


10131 e 


338 


.303 


11.8 


173 


15.4 


20.9 


10126 


37 


.388 


30 


67 


44-7 


37-3 


11130 


76 


• 535 


50 


78 


17.5 


15 


9131 w 


279 


•34 


21.7 


121 


29.9 


9-3 


10129 w 


160 


.318 


8 


264 


14 


27.9 


ioi26n.e 


150 


.321 


16.6 


86 


16.6 


20.8 


ioi3oe 


102 


.313 


33.84 


81 


12.3 


27.7 


10130 W 


287 


.421 


9-7 


187 


4.9 


14.6 


9125 


200 


.28 


21. 1 


96 


14.9 


15.6 


10133 


30 


.406 


12.5 


167 


6.2 


18.7 


9130 w 


307 


•30 


9.9 


94 


17.4 


9-9 


10125 


334 


.29 


7 


88 


19.8 


12.2 


10129 e 


156 


•3i 


11. 2 


128 


II. 2 


14.9 


10124 


392 


.20 


11.4 


74 


15.8 


12.3 


8125 w 


215 


•45 


3 


38 


7-8 


12.5 


8126 W 


395 


.25 


6 


97 


12.2 


14.8 


9129 w 


93 


•39 


10 


121. 6 


6.7 


6.7 


I0I27W 


131 


■33 


5.6 


75 


5-6 


20.4 


9126 e 


144 


.254 


9-3 


149 


9-3 


6.2 


9127 W 


34 


.24 


13 


62.5 




19.3 


8124 W 


86 


.19 


9 


18 




9 


Average 














(43 blocks) 


128 


•339 


15.6 


112.3 


15.3 


16.89 



On glancing over the columns one is struck by the 
manner in which most of the factors vary together. 
The apparent disorder of the rates of density is not so 
aberrant as it may at first appear; for on consulting the 



^2?] VITAL TENDENCIES j^y 

table for the distribution of population, it will be noted 
that even in comparatively unoccupied blocks, the tene- 
ments are often bunched within a small space. The re- 
lation of density to ethnic intermixture is by no means 
simple, since a number of immigrants stick to the small 
houses, as well as filling up the newer blocks. But in 
general, they now crowd into the cheap apartments 
along 125th Street and on upper Amsterdam Avenue. 
Two negro colonies and settlements of a number of 
Irish and German families in several thinly populated 
blocks, explain the only import cases where correspond- 
ence is lacking in this respect. The connection between 
poverty and crowding is plain on an economic basis. 
The obvious exceptions are the more ambitious tenants 
of the well-filled blocks east of Morningside Avenue. 

The relation between density and birth-rate is plainer. 
It is apparently due to a common economic basis, as 
Booth has suggested. 1 The enumerations for our neigh- 
borhood show that the largest ratios of young children 
and of unskilled laborers generally occur in the same 
blocks. There is also a close connection between a 
high birth-rate and the proportion of foreign elements 
(which include most laborers) as we have already shown. 
The connection between the last three items is on the 
whole, direct and simple. Infants have the highest rate 
of mortality ; and children are more subject to con- 
tagious diseases, such as measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria 
and meningitis, which are the main entries in our health 
reports. The apparent exceptions to this general rule 
can, for the most part, be explained as instances where 
the death of a few older people in a thinly populated 
block brought up the death-rate rapidly. Where this 

x Op. cit., p. 20. 



I 4 8 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [328 

is not the case (t. e., a high death-rate, a low birth-rate 
and a crowded section coinciding), we find cases of 
tuberculosis frequent. 1 This is the greatest factor in 
adult mortality, as we have seen. 

1 Such an analysis of conditions and tendencies might be made more 
exact by comparing the various rates for different houses. But this is 
scarcely in place here. A most interesting and profitable study of city 
life might be presented by an investigator who would trace the social 
history of a single large tenement for a number of years. 



CHAPTER VI 
Movements of Population 

We have now gained a somewhat definite conception 
of the character of the population of Manhattanville, as 
it was between 1900 and 1905. The question then arises, 
what tendencies are at present apparent? How have the 
people changed ? What movements are noticeable within 
the group that point the course of future development? 
In this final section, we must attempt to indicate certain 
answers to these questions of more contemporary interest. 

We have already noted that the coming of rapid transit 
broke down the primitive character of village life. The 
swarming in of a cosmopolitan population bids fair soon 
to eliminate all traces of this little province in the Hollow. 
The history of the section has been, in an increasing de- 
gree, that of a local aggregation, instead of a community 
growing from within. Let us first try to estimate the 
volume and character of this movement. 

The general cause of the northward pressure of popu- 
lation is given by the shape of Manhattan Island. As 
trade and industry developed first about the lower apex, 
the people had to spread in this direction or diverge 
throughout the region surrounding the harbor. The 
most direct course was up the North and East Rivers. 
Rapid communication soon made this possible as far as 
Harlem. Beyond this point, the narrowing shores of the 
Island forced the people westward or obliged them to 
cross into the Bronx. The "Highlands " were gradually 
329] 149 



150 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [330 

invaded, as we have seen. But for folks without carri- 
ages, the opening between the hills offered an easier 
route of access. Here a comparatively spacious place 
for homes was found, at fairly low rates. A man could 
have a garden and keep chickens. Gradually certain 
neighborhood ties were established among the settlers. 
The Irish and German colonists acquired religious and 
other social organizations. Such settlements became 
nuclei for the gathering of persons of the same birth 
and traditions. As the new tenements went up, other 
elements entered, formed little centers and gradually 
scattered throughout the neighborhood. But cheap rent 
was the principal attraction. So as the flats continued 
to rise, various sorts of people pressed in. 

We have seen that the birth-rate of this section was 
not sufficient to account for its growth. We have also 
noted that between 1900 and 1905, sixty-four small 
houses disappeared to make room for fifty-seven new 
flats. Obviously the city tenement is not an index of an 
expanding people, but a sign of a superimposed popula- 
tion. The occupants of these houses, old and new, have 
been traced in the two enumerations, and a comparison 
of the households made in the table opposite. 

It appears that the large foreign households are being 
forced out by the small native families. We must recol- 
lect, however, that a large part of the increase in native- 
born is from the offspring of immigrants and from 
negroes. 1 

These figures furnish us with a basis for estimating 
the rate of migration into our neighborhood. If we 
add the total number of persons who moved into new 
houses to the population in 1905 (as estimated from the 

1 Negroes increased 60 per cent from 1900 to 1905. 



331] MOVEMENTS OF POPULATION I5I 

Table XXVIII 

HOUSEHOLDS DISPLACED, I9CC-5; PERSONS IN NEW HOUSES, I905 



Nativity 



Austria-Hungary . 

Canada - 

England and Wales . . 

France 

Germany 

Ireland 

Italy 

Poland and Russia • • • 

Scotland 

Scandinavia 

Switzerland 

United States 

Others 

Mixed 

Total Households 

" Persons 

" Children . •• 



1900 
(Heads) 


1905 
(Persons) 


1 


20 


3 
4 


**66 


2 


15 


27 


179 


11 


173 


2 

3 


9 

36 


1 


17 


1 


15 


3 
23 

1 


21 18 
85 


1 


.... 


83 




495 
204 


2733 
822 



genetic increase for that year applied to the figures for 
1900) we have not yet the sum returned by the last City 
census. 1 The discrepancy (19 per cent) must be ex- 
plained on the supposition that more people moved in, 
or that the rate of natural increase during the five years 
was higher than that assumed. The first hypothesis is 
largely correct. We may say, however, that at least 15 
per cent of the increase between the census years was 
due to immigration. But how great was the flow from 
which this surplus remained, we cannot say. The popu- 
lation now moves rapidly. A priest in the local parish 
stated that almost one-third of his congregation changes 
from year to year. 

Some notion of the rapidity of the exodus may be had 



15383 + 2733 = 181 16. Cf. p. 39- 



I §2 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [^2 

from the number of transfers issued to pupils of the 
local public school. During the six months from Sep- 
tember to March, 1909, the children of 116 families were 
thus shifted. This was from an average attendance of 
about 2,000, during months when moving is compara- 
tively infrequent. One naturally asks, whence do these 
people come and whither do they go? Let us see. 

The origins of the foreign-born population have 
already been indicated. 1 The course of the natives is 
more difficult to plot. But as straws sometimes show 
the flow of currents, we have noted a few instances that 
may indicate certain tendencies. Of the children of 
Speyer School born outside of the city, the greatest 
number come from nearby towns in Jersey. This sug- 
gests that the Fort Lee Ferry has brought some persons 
into Manhattanville, and has also been the way out for 
others. So far as the data for those born in New York 
is concerned, it bears out a rather interesting phenom- 
enon of social geography. 2 

As we have seen, the population has been moving up 
the island, first on the east side and then on the west. 
The Irish were displaced from the Cherry Hill district, 
and took to the lower West Side. They have been 
pushing north from Hell's Kitchen, and settled in num- 
bers along Tenth and Eleventh Avenues as far as 70th 
Street. They are pressed in the rear by negroes, and 
followed by newer arrivals from Southern Europe. But 
as Broadway swings west and Riverside Drive begins, 
the Irish have followed Ninth and Amsterdam Avenues 
north past Central Park, and so arrive in our section. 
On the other side of the Park the German colony was 

1 Cf. Chapter ii, Tables IX and XII. 

2 The addresses on the case cards of the local C. O. S. confirm the 
generalization to be advanced. 



333] MOVEMENTS OF POPULATION 153 

forced out of the lower East Side toward Harlem, and 
their descendants spread to the Bronx or scattered west- 
ward before the Jews and Italians who followed them. 

Now, though the social stratification of the island has 
been largely established along the Avenues, important 
cross streets afford a line of transfusion. Such a line 
has been given by 125th Street. It is interesting to note, 
therefore, that though Manhattanville has representatives 
of the western route, it is also being filled in by Hebrews 
and Italians from Harlem. This crossing of currents in 
the Hollow gives it a particular demographic interest. 

But when the people leave, which way do they go ? 
As throwing some light on this question, we have 
charted the general direction in which the families of 
school children from our section has been moving re- 
cently. 

Table XXIX 

DESTINATION OF FAMILIES. SCHOOL RECORDS, FALL AND WINTER, I908 

New York City 128 

Manhattan 103 

North 38 

South 47 

East 18 

Other Boroughs 25 

Bronx 14 

Brooklyn 11 

Out of City 64 

Out of State 40 

West 26 

East 7 

South 7 

Out of Country 3 

Total 192 

These facts are two few to indicate more than surface 
tendencies. So far as an observer can judge the deeper 



154 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [334 

movements, the strongest current is northward and into 
the Bronx. A second well-defined branch is toward the 
suburban district of Jersey opposite. The down-town 
return flow is explained largely by "jobs" obtained 
there, as is also the movement toward the industrial 
towns of the Middle Western States. So much is per- 
haps sufficient to indicate that Manhattanville is no 
longer essentially a neighborhood of homes, but a stop- 
ping place. The more successful and ambitious persons 
expect to move out; a few old settlers remain; a number 
of other persons can do no better than to stay. 

We must next inquire concerning the residuum, its 
size and character. It is dangerous to estimate a grow- 
ing city population. We shall not attempt to do so, but 
merely present certain figures about which the increase 
probably varies. Applying the rate for the years 1900— 
1905 to the numbers for the latter date, we have 21,709 
as the total for January 1, 1909. But as we have seen, 
the result depends so much upon the migration into new 
houses that we have attempted to check this figure by 
the number of apartments added within the section dur- 
ing the last three years. Since June 1, 1905, there have 
been built 59 houses containing accommodations for 151 1 
families. 1 Multiplying the number of apartments by the 
average size of a household, we should have 6800 addi- 
tional people. But, as a matter of observation, we know 
that this number is too large: first, because we noted 
some 235 apartments vacant during the winter; and sec- 
ondly, because, as we have just seen, the families that 
are moving in are smaller than formerly. Since both of 
these reasons apply especially to the more expensive 

1 For these figures the writer is also indebted to the courtesy of the 
Tenement House Department, through the kindness of Dr. Claghorn. 



335] 



MOVEMENTS OF POPULATION 



155 



new houses on the growing margins of our neighbor- 
hood, we should not put the increase on this basis at 
more than 6000. Subtracting 118 tenants of the 15 
houses displaced by these operations within our neigh- 
borhood, we have approximately 24,358 persons. With 
such a large migratory population, the rate of natural 
increase is an illusory check. But applying it to the 
numbers for 1905, and adding the tenants of new houses, 
we have 25,000 as a maximum. From these rough 
approximations it is evident that the local population is 
growing more and more rapidly by agglomeration. 

Consequent upon the enlarged communication and the 
rapid inflow of population, has followed a great increase 
in the value of real estate. The following table was 
made up from the assessors' lists for thirteen blocks in 
various parts of our neighborhood. . 



Table XXX 

APPRAISED VALUE OF REAL ESTATE, IQO4-T908 





Land 


Improvements 


Block 












1904 


1908 


1904 


1908 


8125 w 


$367,500 


$456,000 


$301,500 


$392,000 


9125 


529,600 


796,700 


169,600 


336,500 


9125 w 


182,000 


229,000 


120,000 


140,000 


9130 w 


170,900 


234,000 


190,000 


226,000 


9131 w 


278,000 


469,500 


215,500 


336,500 


10124 


549,000 


782,700 


1,065,200 


1,223,300 


10125 


540,500 


776,000 


506,000 


740,500 


ioi26n.e 


449,600 


576,200 


115,200 


201,800 


10127 n.w 


122,000 


290,400 


6,000 


347,ioo 


10131 e 


222,000 


357,500 


193,500 


238,500 


10132 c 


257,000 


403,000 


297,000 


385,000 


10133 


421,000 


634,700 


37,500 


880,300 


11132 


261,000 


383,000 


45,000 


133,000 



Average appreciation 
46.86 per cent. 



Average increment 
71.08 per cent. 



I5 6 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [336 

It will be seen that the rise has been very decided 
under the stimulation of speculative building. 1 The 
crest of the boom reached Manhattanville in T906-7, and 
has now passed on to the Bronx. But the improve- 
ment in land values has been permanent, and a better 
class of apartment houses is following up Riverside and 
Convent Avenues. 

Naturally a rise in rents has accompanied this in- 
creased value of real estate. Tenements that formerly 
let for $io-$i6, now cost $i2-$i8. Apartments that 
rent for $20-26, were $i8-$2i three years ago. The 
result has been to crowd the poorer people into certain 
old rows, where natural and social selection rapidly 
sorts, not always the "fittest," but the fittest to survive 
under such conditions. 

This process is intensifying the urban type of segrega- 
tion. Certain blocks and rows have well-defined stand- 
ards. A more prosperous type of young business and 
professional man is pressing up Broadway. The work- 
ing men are forced into mixed tenements. Houses on 
the marginal side streets are being filled with the clerk 
class. Were the section for the present not somewhat 
overbuilt, the exodus of artisans might be more rapid. 
But the size of the house does not assure its permanent 
occupancy by well-to-do tenants. The subdivision of 
the more recent apartments, unless built upon a plan 
regarding the convenience for very small units of rooms, 

l A very interesting study might be made by an investigator who 
would compare the original cost of the land and dwellings in a given 
section during a certain period; and compare this with their capitalized 
value as represented by rent, together with their assessed rating and 
their speculative value as given by recent sales. One is led to believe 
that in some cases the poorest houses would be found to yield the 
largest incomes; and that land without incumbrances is the most pay- 
ing investment for those who can afford to hold for a rise. 



337] MOVEMENTS OF POPULATION ^j 

may yet furnish as serious a problem for family life as 
the reconstructed single dwelling. 

It is not to be expected that such a study as this 
should attempt prognostication without the facts of 
family life, industrial tendency and social organization 
as a background. And yet certain factors in the com- 
position and movements of the local population should 
be emphasized, in order to point possible directions of 
future growth. 

Manhattanville is now in an era of rapid development 
as an urban center. Its neighborhood traditions are 
largely broken, and a miscellaneous population is filling 
in. The type of social life to be established is largely 
dependent upon the surrounding community. For the 
present, the growth is made up of rather detached ele- 
ments. The business development of Harlem is bringing 
in various factors for good and evil. The anonymity of 
flat life engenders a certain disregard of local welfare. 
One no longer knows his neighbors. Unless some local 
spirit beyond political clannishness is encouraged, the 
social hygiene of the section may become a serious prob- 
lem. As one sees the development of certain rows filled 
with foreign and colored people, he fears the fate of the 
San Juan Hill section on the lower West Side. To be 
sure, the prosperous residents along Morningside and 
the Drive would not like to have such factors develop. 
But already there is at least one place known to young 
men of the neighborhood, where "a little game" may be 
enjoyed. Some of the flats not far removed from the 
University, have women occupants who are not averse 
to the society of young men. 

The general economic tendency of the region cannot 
be directly effected. But it seems as though an admir- 
able field for the development of practical civics might 



I5 8 A STUDY OF MANHATTANVILLE [338 

be found in the Hollow. The churches and schools are 
doing all that can be expected of them. Perhaps the 
University and the College that crown the enclosing 
hills, might with good effect turn some attention to the 
growth of the region at their feet. As an experiment 
in scientific social prophylaxis, the field is a promising 
one, if cultivated in the spirit of respectful sympathy. 
The question to be decided within the next ten years is, 
" Shall Manhattanville be filled with people who are good 
neighbors ; or shall it become a sort of social drain, 
filled with settlings from the city's economic life?" 



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December, 1907. 

Railroad Valuation Wm. Z. Ripley 

The Legal Status of Trade Unions Henry R. Seager 

The Constitutionality of Civil Service Laws Harold Harper 

The Office of Mayor in France Wm. Bennett Munro 

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Current Political Theory Wm. A. Dunning 

March, 1908. 

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Fisher's ''Capital and Income" Thorstein Veblen 

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By Charles E. Stangeland, Ph.D. Price, £2.50. 

VOLUME XXII, 1905. 520 pp. Price, $3.00. 

The Historical Development of the Poor Law of Connecticut. 

By Edward W. Capen, Ph.D. 

VOLUME XXIII, 1905. 594 pp. Price, $3.50. 

1. The Economics of Land Tenure in Georgia. 

By Enoch Marvin Banks, Ph.D. Price, fx.oo. 

2. Mistake in Contract. A Study in Comparative Jurisprudence. 

By Edwin C. McKeag, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

3. Comhination in the Mining Industry. 

By Henry R. Mussey, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

4. The English Craft Gilds and the Government. 

By Stella Kramer, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

VOLUME XXIV, 1905. 521 pp. Price, $3.00. 

1. The Place of Magic in vhe Intellectual History of Europe. 

By Lynn Thorndike, Ph.D. Price, 75 cents. 

2. The Ecclesiastical Edicts of the Theodosian Code. 

By William K. Boyd, Ph.D. Price, 75 cents. 

3. *The International Position of Japan as a Great Power. 

By Seiji G. Hishida, Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 



iM 19 ^09 



VOLUME XXV, 1906-07. 600 pp. Price, $4.00. 

1. * Municipal Control of Public Utilities. . 

By Oscar Lewis Pond, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

2. The Budget in the American Commonwealths. 

By Eugene E. Agger, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. The Finances of Cleveland. By Charles C. Williamson, Ph.D. Price, #2.00. 

VOLUME XXVI, 1907. 559 pp. Price, $3.50. 

1. Trade and Currency in Early Oregon. 

By James H. Gilbert, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

2. Luther's Table Talk. By Preserved Smith, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

3. The Tobacco Industry in the United States. 

By Meyer Jacobstein, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

4. Social Democracy and Population. 

By Alvan A. Tenney, Ph.D. Price, 75 cents. 

VOLUME XXVII, 1907. 578 pp. Price, $3.50. 

1. The Economic Policy of Robert Walpole. 

By Norris A. Brisco, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

2. The United States Steel Corporation. 

By Abraham Berglund, Ph.D. Price, $1.50 

3. The Taxation of Corporations in Massachusetts. 

By Harry G. Friedman, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

VOLUME XXVIII, 1907. 564 pp. Price, $3.50. 

1. DeWitt Clinton and the Origin of the Spoils System in New York. 

By Howard Lee McBain, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

2. The Development of the Legislature of Colonial Virginia. 

By Elmer I. Miller, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. The Distribution of Ownership. 

By Joseph Harding Underwood, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

VOLUME XXIX, 1908. 703 pp. Price, $4.00. 

1. Early New England Towns. By Anne Bush MacLbar, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

2. New Hampshire as a Royal Province. 

By William H. Fry, Ph.D. Price, $3.00. 

VOLUME XXX, 1908. 712 pp. Price, $4.00. 

The Province of New Jersey, 1664—1738. By Edwin P. Tanner, Ph.D. 

VOLUME XXXI, 1908. 575 pp. Price, $3.50. 

1. Private Freight Cars and American Railroads. 

By L. D. H. Weld, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

2. Ohio before 1850. By Robert E. Chaddock, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. Consanguineous Marriages in the American Population. 

By George B. Louis Arner, Ph.D. Price, 75c 

4. Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician. By Frank H. Hankins, Ph.D. Price, {1.25. 

VOLUME XXXII, 1908. 705 pp. Price, $4.00. 

The Enforcement of the Statutes of Laborers. 

By Bertha Haven Putnam, Ph.D. 

VOLUME XXXIII, 1908-1909. 635 pp. Price, $4.00. 

1. Factory Legislation in Maine. By E. Stagg Whitin, A.B. Price, $i.oo. 

2. *Psy etiological Interpretations of Society. 

By Michael M. Davis, Jr., Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 

3. *An Introduction to the Sources relating to the Germanic Inva- 

sions. By Carlton Huntley Hayes, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

VOLUME XXXIV, 1909. 628 pp. Price, $4.00. 

1. [89] Transportation and Industrial Development in the Middle 

West. By William F. Gephart, Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 

2. [90] Social Kef orm and the Reformation. 

By Jacob Salwyn Schapiro, Ph.D. Price, $1.25. 

3. [91] Responsibility for Crime. By Philip A. Parsons, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

VOLUME XXXV, 1909. 

1. [93] The Conflict over the Judicial Powers in the United States to 

1870. By Charles Grove Haines, Ph.D. Price, $150. 

2. [93] A Study of the Population of Manhattanville. 

By Howard Brown Woolston, Ph.D. Price, $1.25. 



The price for each volume is for the set of monographs in paper. Each volume, as well as the 

separate monographs marked*, can be supplied in cloth-bound copies, for 50c. additional. 

All prices are net. 
The set of thirty-four volumes, comprising ninety-one monographs, (except that Vol. II can be 

supplied only in unbound nos. 2 and 3) is offered bound for $114. Volumes I, III and IV can 

now be supplied only in connection with complete sets. 



For further information, apply to 

Prof. EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN, Columbia University, 

or to Messrs. LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., New York. 
London: P. S. KING & SON, Orchard House, Westminster 



